Carl Craver: Memory, Time and Agency

Dr Carl Craver (Washington University in St. Louis)

Individuals with episodic amnesia and deficits in episodic future projection are frequently described as trapped in an eternal present or bound to stimuli in the here and now. I argue that individuals with medial temporal lobe damage and deficits in these capacities nonetheless retain much of their orientation in time and much of their ability to make adaptive prudential choices about their futures. These findings suggest that episodic memory might play very little role in our understanding of time and suggest alternative ways of thinking about both the function of episodic memory and the human capacity to make adaptive, future-oriented decisions.

Registration for this event will be opened on March 7, 2015.