Donna Addis: Because of the constructive nature of memory, thinking about past and future events is remarkably similar in the brain #CNS2015
— Marlieke vanKesteren (@marliekevk) March 29, 2015
You may have noticed I've been poking around twitter a bit more. Sometimes it provides leads to interesting articles or it just provokes a thought worth pondering. This tweet reminded me that memory and prediction of future events may rest upon the same or closely related neural processes.
This observation raises the question of whether we can look at degree and type of memory impairment to make appraisals of likely impairments in judgment.
Though I studied neuropsych and had three years of clinical training experience doing neuropsych assessment, that was long ago. If I suspect a neuro compromise, I refer out, on occasion to the ER, but more often to a neuropsychologist or neurologist depending upon what I'm seeing.
What's my point? I don't keep up with neuropsych assessment, so there may be plenty of literature on assessing judgment based on assessment of memory function. Of course, memory is only part of this, but it seems to me that certain types of memory impairments would also compromise ability to predict and, therefore, compromise judgment resting upon that ability.
A quick scan of google turns up an article titled Memory, Imagination, and Predicting the Future, which oddly is exactly the search term I entered.
Plugging away at a novel right now, trying to figure out what comes next. When I thought of it as "what did she do?" I had a rather darkened, foggy view of the situation. But when I thought instead, "what WILL she do next?" my mental view brightened and her possible choices opened out wards like a fan.
Having said that, I still don't know for sure what she will be doing next. Humph.
Posted by: NoniMausa | Thursday, April 02, 2015 at 06:29 PM