Prometheus to Proust: the case for behavioural criteria for ‘mental time travel’

Abstract

Suddendorf and Busby [ 1 Suddendorf T. Busby J. Mental time travel in animals?. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2003; 7: 391-396 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (243) Google Scholar ] claim that only humans are capable of mental time travel (MTT), either backwards to recollect specific past episodes (episodic memory), or forwards to anticipate future events (future planning). Although western scrub-jays remember the what-where-and-when of specific past events [ 2 Clayton N.S. Dickinson A. Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature. 1998; 395: 272-278 Crossref PubMed Scopus (983) Google Scholar ], Suddendorf and Busby argue that this result does not provide convincing evidence for episodic-like memory, and raise several points in support of this claim. We will respond to each of these in turn.