Mental Simulation of the Imminent Future

Research on simulating the future has garnered much attention from cognitive psychologists, especially over the last decade. Extant work has demonstrated that projecting oneself into the future can have beneficial effects on the individual, such as allowing them to ponder decisions and plan actions. However, in this project I address a potential oversight in the literature; namely, the conceptualization of what classifies as a future moment. Indeed, an analysis of the future thinking literature illustrates that the future is commonly understood as an event that takes place at a different time and location than the present moment. Nonetheless, I propose that an additional time-frame of the future exists and merits experimental attention. Specifically, I put forth the notion of mental simulation of the imminent future, which is a time point both spatially and temporally linked to the moment in which the simulation is taking place. In addition to grounding the concept of the imminent future within the extant research on future thinking, I also provide preliminary evidence suggesting that simulations of the imminent future are characteristically and functionally different from simulations of the future that occur in a time and place that is removed from the present moment (i.e., the delayed future). Finally, I present data from a diary study that provides novel insights into the differences between simulations of the imminent and delayed future.