Absence of age effects on spontaneous past and future thinking in daily life

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018.Previous research on voluntary mental time travel (i.e., deliberately thinking about the past or future) has resulted in negative age effects. In contrast, studies on spontaneous past thoughts (i.e., involuntary autobiographical memories) have reported small or no age effects. The aim of the present research was to investigate the effects of age on the nature and frequency of spontaneous future thoughts in everyday life. In two studies, we examined whether older adults reported spontaneous future thoughts as often as younger adults, and whether these thoughts were predominantly goal-oriented and less dependent on incidental cues than thoughts about the past. In Study 1, young and old participants kept a diary of spontaneous thoughts of upcoming prospective memory tasks and involuntary autobiographical memories for 2 weeks. In Study 2, a 1-day experience sampling method was used to investigate spontaneous and deliberate task-unrelated future and past thoughts, by having young and old participants complete a questionnaire in response to 30 random signals. In both studies, no age effects were found in the frequency of spontaneous future thoughts, which were reported as frequently as thoughts about the past (Study 2) and referred predominantly to upcoming tasks and goals rather than future events or hypothetical events (Study 2). Results concerning the triggers of reported thoughts provide initial support for the idea that representations of future thoughts may be more activated than memories of past events. Taken together, these results have important implications for research on cognitive ageing, mind-wandering, prospective memory and involuntary autobiographical memories.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Foreword: Urban Bioethics

On February 26, 1997, the Fordham University School of Law hosted the Sixth Annual Stein Center Symposium on Contemporary Urban Challenges, entitled Urban Bioethics: A Symposium on Health Care, Poverty, and Autonomy. The Foreword introduces Articles in this Symposium issue and discusses two central themes of the various Articles: socioeconomic framing of bioethical and healthcare issues, and the challenge of the moral consensus

Tax Shell Game: How Much Did Offshore Tax Havens Cost You in 2010?

Provides an overview of corporations' and individuals' use of offshore tax havens and its impact on government revenue and services. Makes policy recommendations including tightening rules for U.S. multinational corporations and revising tax treaties

Sartre, 'Sartre' and the biographical bande dessinée

Biographical comics, graphic novels and bande dessinée (BD) are often seen as ‘stepping stones’ or points of entry into a subject, particularly those of literary or philosophical figures. This article seeks to demonstrate the ways in which this might be disproven by considering the verbo-visual works alongside the theories of their subjects, thus highlighting the former’s role as both independent of, and an extra layer upon, the latter. Building on a study of recent trends in comics and Comics Studies, specifically upon the work of Maaheen Ahmed in the idea of openness in comics, and taking into account classical explorations of comics theory (Groensteen 1987), this article will outline the relationship between Existentialism and comics through the biographical BD, specifically Sartrian theory and Mathilde Ramadier and Anaïs Depommier’s 2015 Sartre. Through its close analysis of verbo-visual relations and issues of representation the article will assess the possibility of using Sartre’s philosophy in conjunction with Sartre to assert the relevance of the medium of the (biographical) BD. Beyond this, I will use the example of Sartre and Sartre to posit that the creation of philosophical and literary biographical BDs can be used to inject philosophy into the medium itself, thus contributing to the notion of a ‘theory of comics’

Paradoxes de l'avant-garde - La modernité artistique à l’épreuve de sa nationalisation

Review of Paradoxes de l'avant-garde: la modernité artistique à l'épreuve de sa nationalisation. Sous la direction de THOMAS HUNKELER, avec la collaboration d'ADRIANA COPACIU et FABIEN DUBOSSON. (Rencontres, 96.) Paris: Garnier, 2014. 327 pp

Dada and Beyond, i: Dada Discourses

Review of Dada and Beyond, I: Dada Discourses. Edited by ELZA ADAMOWICZ and ERIC ROBERTSON. (Avant-garde Critical Studies, 26). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2011. 246 pp., ill