Abstract To build an accurate mental model of complex situations, people infer temporal order from sometimes underspecified linguistic information. The basis on which these inferences are drawn is an open question. While previous literature has focused on the role of linguistic structure and discourse pragmatic strategies as important contributors to temporal inferences, here we argue […]

Episodic memory must accomplish two adversarial goals: encoding and storing a multitude of experiences without exceeding the finite neuronal structure of the brain, and recalling memories in vivid detail. Dimensionality reduction and expansion (‘dimensionality transformation’) enable the brain to meet these demands. Reduction compresses sensory input into simplified, storable codes, while expansion reconstructs vivid details. […]

Responding to Adam Zeman’s excellent article in TiCS on aphantasia [1], Michel et al. [2] raise the intriguing possibility that aphantasia represents a case of access consciousness without phenomenal consciousness of mental imagery. This entails that people with aphantasia could perform tasks using mental imagery, while being unaware of doing so. Read Full Article (External […]