The role of visual and verbal working memory in remembering the past and imagining the future

Abstract

This study examines how visual and verbal working memory contributes to episodic future thinking and whether their effects vary across temporal directions while controlling the effects of working memory capacity. Using a dual-task paradigm, participants recalled past and imagined future events under single- and dual-task conditions while performing visual or verbal 2-back tasks. Results showed that episodic future thinking requires more cognitive resources than episodic memory, evidenced by longer response times and reduced phenomenological richness. Performance under visual and verbal working memory loads was similar, indicating that overall working memory capacity contributes to episodic future thinking. However, past events were rated as less important and emotionally intense under a verbal working memory load, suggesting a crucial role for verbal working memory in episodic recall. These findings reveal the modality specific and capacity-driven mechanisms shaping mental time travel, emphasizing the role of working memory in the representations of past and future events.