Is There a Difference Between Semantic Memory and Episodic Memory?

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It seems like there are two parts. One is like putting on the play in our heads, like literally constructing the scenario. And another part is thinking of it or associating it with past, present, future, fantasy, whatever. Do these necessarily go hand in hand? Are they separate parts of the brain doing different things? Yeah, good. They are probably, like I said earlier, foresight is we don't tend to think of it as just one encapsulated module and in fact it is possible to lose various aspects of the ability to think about the future while keeping others intact.

One of the most powerful of all human capacities is the ability to imagine ourselves in hypothetical situations at different times. We can remember the past, but also conjure up possible futures that haven’t yet happened. This simple ability underlies our capability to organize socially and make contracts with other people. Today’s guest, psychologist Adam Bulley, argues that it’s the primary feature that makes us recognizably human, as he argues in the new book The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight (with Thomas Suddendorf and Jonathan Redshaw).

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Adam Bulley received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Queensland. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre and School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, and the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.

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