When Alice climbs through the looking glass, she encounters a topsy-turvy world. People are punished before committing a crime, and sometimes fingers bleed before a pinprick occurs. Those strange events reflect a memory that works both ways in that world, allowing people to remember things before they happen. As the Queen explains to Alice: “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

Now, back in this world, scientists are discovering that human memory does indeed work forward. A growing number of studies show that the mental machinery for reliving your past performs another—perhaps more vital—task: envisioning your future.

Other studies show that total amnesiacs report a “blank” when asked about their personal futures. And severely depressed patients, who tend to think about both the past and future in a nonspecific manner, have difficulty visualizing positive future events.   Read More...