Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:06:27.707Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Does evolving the future preclude learning from it?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2014

Peter W. Dowrick*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Auckland, PB 92019, Auckland 1010, New Zealand. [email protected]

Abstract

Despite its considerable length, this article proposes a theory of human behavioral science that eschews half the evidence. There is irony in the title “Evolving the Future” when the featured examples of intentional change represent procedures that build slowly on the past. Has an opportunity been missed, or is an evolutionary perspective simply incompatible with learning from the future?

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bandura, A. (1986) Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognbitive theory. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. Fbreeman.Google Scholar
Dowrick, P. W. (2012a) Self model theory: Learning from the future. WIREs Cognitive Science 3:215–30. (First published online November 30, 2011.) doi: 10.1002/wcs.1156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dowrick, P. W. (2012b) Self modeling: Expanding the theories of learning. Psychology in the Schools 49:3041. (First published online December 19, 2011.) doi: 10.1002/pits.20613.Google Scholar
Dowrick, P. W. & Hood, M. (1981) Comparison of self modeling and small cash incentives in a sheltered workshop. Journal of Applied Psychology 66:349–97.Google Scholar
Embry, D. D. (2004) Community-based prevention using simple, low-cost, evidence-based kernels and behavior vaccines. Journal of Community Psychology 32:575–91.Google Scholar
Epstein, R., ed. (1980) Notebooks of B. F. Skinner: Selections from the bprivate notebooks of America's greatest living psychologist. Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hayes, S. C. (2004) Acceptance and commitment therapy, relational frame theory, and the third wave of behavioral and cognitive therapies. Behavior Therapy 35:639–65.Google Scholar
Pfeiffer, B. E. & Foster, D. J. (2013) Hippocampal place-cell sequences depict future paths to remembered goals. Nature 497:7479. doi: 10.1038/nature12112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R. & Buckner, R. L. (2008) Episodic simulation of future events: Concepts, data, and applications. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1124:3960.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Skinner, B. F. (1981) Selection by consequences. Science 213(4507):501504.Google Scholar
Suddendorf, T. & Corballis, M. C. (2007) The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30:299313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed