About this Research Topic
As humans, we store past events as episodic memories to inform our decisions about current and future events. This ability was assumed to be uniquely human, but over the past 25 years, a body of research has shown that some animals, notably corvids and apes, use memories in this way to plan for the future. In the absence of agreed phenomenological markers of consciousness, these memories are termed episodic-like memory in animals. Despite its influential role in planning for future events, episodic memories are subjective, not objective, flexible, and not fixed. This changeability of stored memories at the moment they are retrieved opens opportunities for lasting change in animals and humans. Memory reconsolidation in human research is a process which has been discussed as being central to explaining the lasting change in psychotherapy. Psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists help align memories with the future needs of clients who are unable to exit non-adaptive cycles of behaviors by using different techniques like memory consolidation.
This Research Topic on Memories for the Future serves as a collection of empirical evidence and theoretical approaches on how to study the relation between memories and decision-making for current and future events. It combines an extensive range of researchers from various disciplines to further the knowledge of how memories act to prepare the individual for future challenges. By bringing together studies on humans and non-human animals, as well as inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches, this special issue will advance our current knowledge and allow for the development of new theoretical frameworks. A specific focus will be laid on the articulation of these fundamental processes with change brought about through psychotherapy.
Contributions that study how memories are shaped or constrained by the experiences human and non-human individuals have had in the past are highly welcome. We encourage researchers that study unwilling repetition of inadequate responses, therapeutic interventions, and relationships between cognitions of the past, current, and future to contribute. We also accept research on behavioral evidence, cognitive mechanisms, psychotherapy research, and neuroscientific explanations of memory reconsolidation. We allow a broad range of article types to be submitted: Brief Research Report, Case Report, Clinical Trial, Community Case Study, Conceptual Analysis, Empirical Study, Hypothesis & Theory, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective, Review, Systematic Review.
This Research Topic on Memories for the Future serves as a collection of empirical evidence and theoretical approaches on how to study the relation between memories and decision-making for current and future events. It combines an extensive range of researchers from various disciplines to further the knowledge of how memories act to prepare the individual for future challenges. By bringing together studies on humans and non-human animals, as well as inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches, this special issue will advance our current knowledge and allow for the development of new theoretical frameworks. A specific focus will be laid on the articulation of these fundamental processes with change brought about through psychotherapy.
Contributions that study how memories are shaped or constrained by the experiences human and non-human individuals have had in the past are highly welcome. We encourage researchers that study unwilling repetition of inadequate responses, therapeutic interventions, and relationships between cognitions of the past, current, and future to contribute. We also accept research on behavioral evidence, cognitive mechanisms, psychotherapy research, and neuroscientific explanations of memory reconsolidation. We allow a broad range of article types to be submitted: Brief Research Report, Case Report, Clinical Trial, Community Case Study, Conceptual Analysis, Empirical Study, Hypothesis & Theory, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective, Review, Systematic Review.
Keywords: Memory, Future, Cognition, Decision Making, Self-Efficacy, Comparative Cognition, Health Psychology
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
