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Thinking about the past as the past for the past's sake: Why did temporal reasoning evolve?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

Johannes B. Mahr Open the ORCID record for Johannes B. Mahr [Opens in a new window]
Johannes B. Mahr*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA02138. jmahr@fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Hoerl & McCormack discuss the benefits of temporal reasoning mainly with respect to future planning and decision making. I point out that, for humans, the ability to represent particular past times has distinct benefits, which are independent from contributing to future-directed cognition. Hence, the evolution of the temporal reasoning system was not necessarily driven primarily by its benefits for future-directed cognition.

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 42 , 2019 , e262
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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