TY - JOUR AU - McCarroll, Christopher Jude PY - 2020 M3 - Hypothesis and Theory TI - Remembering the Personal Past: Beyond the Boundaries of Imagination JO - Frontiers in Psychology UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.585352 VL - 11 SN - 1664-1078 N2 - What is the relation between episodic memory and episodic (or experiential) imagination? According to the causal theory of memory, memory differs from imagination because remembering entails the existence of a continuous causal connection between one’s original experience of an event and one’s subsequent memory, a connection that is maintained by a memory trace. The simulation theory rejects this conception of memory, arguing against the necessity of a memory trace for successful remembering. I show that the simulation theory faces two serious problems, which are better explained by appealing to a causal connection maintained by a memory trace. Remembering the personal past is not the same as imagining. ER -