In this volume, leading researchers bring together current work on time perception and time-based prospective memory in order to understand how people time their intentions. This is the first account of many important topics concerning the timing of behavior, offered by scientists of diverse fields who in the past have exhibited an attitude of mutual 'benign neglect'. An explication of the rules which govern timing the future are of fundamental interest to anyone who wishes to explore the potential of human experience.

Prospective memory — especially time-based — is a relatively unexplored way to study memory and few studies have been devoted to its neurobiological foundations. This volume aims to fill this void and will boost further interest in the field, while stimulating interdisciplinary research.

Contents:

• Time Perception and Time-Based Prospective Memory (P Graf & S Grondin)
• Prospective Remembering Involves Time Estimation and Memory Processes (R A Block & D Zakay)
• Dynamic Attending and Prospective Memory for Time (M R Jones)
• Representing Times of the Past, Present and Future in the Brain (W A van de Grind)
• At the Crossroads of Time and Action: A Temporal Discounting Primer for Prospective Memory Researchers (T S Critchfield & G J Madden)
• Time Management (J Francis-Smythe)
• Transcending the Now: Time as a Dimension of Psychological Distance (C J Wakslak, Y Trope & N Liberman)
• Time Monitoring and Executive Functioning: Individual and Developmental Differences (T Mäntylä & M-G Carelli)
• The Neural Correlates of Timing Functions (K Rubia)
• The Neurology and Neuropsychology of Time-Based Prospective Memory (J Cockburn)
• What It Takes to Remember the Future (J Glicksohn & M S Myslobodsky)

“Prospective memory has been a long neglected area in memory research, even though it probably is one of the most ecologically relevant forms of memory. This volume will bring readers up to speed on most current accounts of the function as well as the possible underlying neurobiology of the process. Many of the chapters blend empirical findings and well reasoned speculation in a highly interesting, very readable way.”

“Timing the Future offers the reader an intensive short course on the fascinating topic of prospective memory — that is, how is it that we remember (or forget) to do those things we defer to a future time. The chapters suggest intriguing possibilities for future work, both experimental and clinical.”

“Given the paucity of research on time-based prospective memory, the publication of the present volume came as a pleasant surprise to me. A primary objective of this new and intriguing book is to raise important questions in relation to time-based prospective memory and bring together prominent researchers from various different fields to tackle these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective. I have no doubt that the publication of this book will greatly stimulate research in this neglected area. This research, in turn, may result in findings that will greatly contribute to our theoretical understanding of time-based prospective memory and its possible links with time-estimation, temporal discounting, construal of future events and individual differences in time-management. I am looking forward to these exciting new developments in the field ... [T]he editors have done an excellent job in putting together such a timely and thought-provoking interdisciplinary volume on time-based prospective memory.”

“The first chapter provides an excellent overview of the methods and results of time-based prospective memory experiments ... The last chapter by the editors concludes the book with a nice history of the study of prospective memory together with an excellent review of the major findings in the field ... Overall, I think the book makes an important contribution to the literature on timing.”