What shall I do tomorrow? When will I pass my driving test? When will I be a father?

As opposed to concentrating on the present, we seem to spend an awful lot of time  pondering our own future. The Future Thinking Research Group aims to uncover why and how humans imagine the future. It is also known that thoughts about the future can be changed dramatically and consequentially by brain injury and psychological ill health. Our aim is by studying these changes we can understand more about these disorders, and by doing so uncover new therapies and new ways of understanding the human mind. 

If you feel your thoughts about the future have been affected by a neurological or psychological disorder feel free to contact me as you may be able to participate in ongoing research projects. I am currently interested in how memory disorders, neurological disturbance (e.g., stroke, brain tumor) age and psychological disorders (e.g., emotional disorders, OCD) can affect future thinking, but we also have several studies involving individuals with no history of brain damage. Your participation is highly valued and is the bedrock of increasing and improving knowledge of psychological processes.

Email: cole.s.n80@gmail.com

Latest Publications

Cole, S. N & Kvavilashvili, L. (2019) . Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: a dual process account. Psychological Research (in press). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01262-7

Cole, S. N. & Kvavilashvili, L. (2019) Spontaneous future cognition: The past, present and future of an emerging topic. Psychological Research, 83 (4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01193-3

Latest Projects

Examining the dual process hypothesis of spontaneous future thoughts using the vigilance paradigm (led by Helgi Clayton McClure, preregistered on OSF, with materials available).

Replicating and examining the causes of the time-space association and temporal direction of spontaneous thoughts (Vannucci, Pelagatti, Chiorro & Brugger, 2019, preregistered on OSF).