Daniel Schacter
American psychologist; William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, researching memory, amnesia, memory distortion and future simulation; author of The Seven Sins of Memory (2001).
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What they believe
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Flexibly recombining past experiences should help in imagining the future, because the future rarely repeats the past exactly
This kind of flexible retrieval and recombination should be adaptive for purposes of thinking about the future because the future is rarely an exact repetition of the past – we want to be able to simulate novel upcoming events in light of our past experiences.
cogneurosociety.orgSaid 21 Feb 2019This on korrents
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Over a long career it is important to try to treat failures and rejections as teaching signals
Those experiences are rarely pleasant, and can be demoralizing, but to sustain over the long-term I think it is important to try to view them as sources of teaching signals.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govSaid 5 Dec 2018This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 7 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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Recent
Flexibly recombining past experiences should help in imagining the future, because the future rarely repeats the past exactly
This kind of flexible retrieval and recombination should be adaptive for purposes of thinking about the future because the future is rarely an exact repetition of the past – we want to be able to simulate novel upcoming events in light of our past experiences.
Putting Together the Puzzle of Adaptive Constructive Memory: Q&A with Daniel Schacter (Cognitive Neuroscience Society) Said 21 Feb 2019
Memory research is broadening to how memory shapes future thinking, problem solving, decision making and creativity, and the trend is likely to continue
In my own lab and in the field more generally, I think that we are seeing a focus on memory not just as a means of retrieving past experiences and stored knowledge, but also an increasing interest in how various forms of memory impact a range of cognitive and affective functions, including future thinking, scene construction, problem solving, decision making, emotion regulation, and creativity. I think that this broadens considerably the domain of memory research, and is a trend that I expect to continue in the future.
Putting Together the Puzzle of Adaptive Constructive Memory: Q&A with Daniel Schacter (Cognitive Neuroscience Society) Said 21 Feb 2019
Over a long career it is important to try to treat failures and rejections as teaching signals
Those experiences are rarely pleasant, and can be demoralizing, but to sustain over the long-term I think it is important to try to view them as sources of teaching signals.
Implicit Memory, Constructive Memory, and Imagining the Future: A Career Perspective (Perspectives on Psychological Science) Said 5 Dec 2018
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Amid the focus on reproducibility and rigor, surprise and excitement still count as key elements of a career in psychological science
In these times of justified focus on important issues related to reproducibility, rigor, and open science, we would do well to remember that surprise and excitement still count as key elements of a career in psychological science.
Implicit Memory, Constructive Memory, and Imagining the Future: A Career Perspective (Perspectives on Psychological Science) Said 5 Dec 2018
Some memory processes that help people respond adaptively also produce errors
Bartlett’s elaboration of what he meant by “turning round” on one’s own schemata reveals an important property of human memory: some processes that contribute to adaptive responding also result in error.
Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory (American Psychologist, 2012) Said c. 2012
Imagined futures mislead when they leave out features that matter, and help when they represent the critical ones
As a result, when a future scenario involves features or properties that are not represented when people imagine that scenario, but are relevant to how they will feel or perform when the scenario actually unfolds, individuals are very likely to be led astray by their incomplete, essentialized, or unrepresentative simulations. By contrast, simulations tend to be useful when they do represent critical features of an upcoming situation.
Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory (American Psychologist, 2012) Said c. 2012
Emphasising both constructive and functional processes should broaden understanding of how memory links past and future
A combined emphasis on constructive and functional processes should broaden our understanding of how memory links the past with the future.
Adaptive constructive processes and the future of memory (American Psychologist, 2012) Said c. 2012
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Where they publish
Site sites.harvard.edu His Harvard memory lab site.
The Schacter Memory Lab's research, people and publications on memory, imagination and future thinking.
Link verified 3 Oct 2026.
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