Dr Scott Cole

Teaching

• 3PY356 Neuropsychology (Module Leader)
• 3PY340 Dissertation
• MPY100 Psychological Research Methods

Research

Imagining possible future events (or Episodic Future Thinking) is a fundamental and familiar aspect of everyday life. Imagined future scenarios can range from important life events to an upcoming job one intends to complete (e.g. doing the weekly shop). In my research, I have examined how a range of groups (for example, healthy young adults, older adults and those with acquired brain injuries) imagine specific scenarios which may plausibly happen in the future. I am interested in the cognitive processes required for episodic future thinking.

As well as these theoretical aspects, I am also interested in the practical applications of how humans use imagining the future to attain personal goals. My recent work suggests a link between spontaneous future thoughts and current goals. I am also interested in the consequences of impairments in episodic future thinking. My research involves collaborative links with Experimental Cognitive Psychologists, Clinical Neuropsychologists and Health Psychologists.

My expertise lies in memory systems, specifically episodic memory and episodic future thinking, utilising experimental methods. I also have expertise in Cognitive Neuropsychology, using case-controlled designs.

Professional Activities

British Neuropsychological Society (Member)

Experimental Psychology Society (Member)

British Psychological Society (Chartered Psychologist, CPsychol)

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Publications

Submitted/Under Review

Clayton McClure, H., Shevchenko, J., & Cole, S. N. New directions in mental time travel research: Understanding the ways future thinking can be applied to real-world challenges. In M. El Haj, M. Irish & S. Janssen (Eds.), Handbook of Autobiographical Memory: From Basic to Applied Perspectives. Elsevier.

Cheriet, N., Öner, S., Watson, L. A., & Cole, S. N. Personal and Collective Memories and Future Thoughts: A Laboratory Study of Episodic and Non-Episodic Detail.

Mazza, A., Davis, P., Johnson, L., Larkin, F., & Cole, S. N. Identifying Therapies for Reducing Alexithymia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Under review.

In Press/Published

Öner, S., Watson, L. A., Cole, S. N., & Szpunar, K. K. (2025). Spatial Optimism in Individuals' Future Thinking about the COVID-19 Pandemic. Applied Cognitive Psychology. Accepted.

Shevchenko, J., Ji, J. L., Cole, S. N., Renner, F., & Hallford, D. J. (2025). Investigating the effect of mental imagery-based future episodic simulation on subsequent behavioral engagement in depressed, dysphoric, and nondepressed individuals. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/mac0000232

Duffy, J., Cole, S., Charura, D., & Shevchenko, J. (2025). Efficacy of the Best Possible Self Intervention for Generalised Anxiety: Exploration of Mediators and Moderators. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2025.2487442

Cole, S. N., & Charura, D. (2025). The Dire Need to Examine Relationships Between Prospection and Subtypes of Anxiety. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 14(1), 24–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/mac0000222

O'Brien, C., Akeel, A., McCormick, G., Cole, S., & Charura, D. (2025). Global Approaches to Supporting Mental Health and Resettlement for Veterans With Embodied Trauma: A Comprehensive Scoping Review. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 25, e70011. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.70011

Cole, S., Szpunar, K., Benoit, R., Bastin, C., Schacter, D., Rafal, R., & Turnbull, O. (2025). Emotional past and future events after pulvinar damage: A neuropsychological case series. Cortex, 184, 221–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2024.12.021

McClure, J. H. C., Elwell, C., Jones, T., Mirković, J., & Cole, S. N. (2024). On second thoughts: Testing the underlying mechanisms of spontaneous future thought. Cognition, 250, 105863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105863

Duffy, J., Cole, S., Charura, D., & Shevchenko, J. (2024). Anxiety, Self-Satisfaction and Self-Defining Events: Exploring the Inter-Related Dimensions of the Self. Identity, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2024.2390148

Duffy, J., Cole, S. N., Charura, D., & Boland, J. (2023). Depression and Looming Cognitive Style: Examining the Mediating Effect of Perceived Control. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2023.100698

Cole, S. N., Markostamou, I., Watson, L. A., Barzykowski, K., Ergen, I., Taylor, A., & Öner, S. (2022). Spontaneous past and future thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic across 14 countries: Effects of individual and country-level COVID-19 impact indicators. Journal of Applied Research on Memory and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/mac0000071

Öner, S., Watson, L. A., Adıgüzel, Z., et al. (2022). Collective remembering and forecasting during the COVID-19 pandemic: How the impact of COVID-19 affected the themes and phenomenology of global and national memories across 15 countries. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01329-8

McClure, H. C., & Cole, S. N. (2022). Controllability is key: Goal pursuit during COVID-19 and insights for theories of self-regulation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. http://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12920

Cole, S. N., & Tubbs, P. M. C. (2021). Predictors of obsessive–compulsive symptomology: Mind wandering about the past and future. Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01585-4

Cole, S. N., Smith, D. M., Ragan, K., Suurmond, R., & Armitage, C. J. (2021). Synthesizing Effects of Mental Simulation on Behavior Change: Systematic Review and Multilevel Meta-Analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28, 1514–1537. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-021-01880-6

Cole, S. N., & Kvavilashvili, L. (2021). Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: A dual process account. Psychological Research, 85, 464–479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01262-7

Duffy, J. & Cole, S. N. (2020). Functions of involuntary and voluntary future thinking: Evidence from subjective ratings. Psychological Research, 85, 1583–1601. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00426-020-01338-9

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

Hamilton, J., & Cole, S. N. (2017). Imagining possible selves across time: Characteristics of self-images and episodic thoughts. Consciousness & Cognition, 52, 9–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2017.04.015

Cole, S. N., & Pauly-Takacs, K. (2017). Is obesity linked with episodic memory impairment? The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(3), 590–591. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1173075

Conway, M. A., Loveday, C., & Cole, S. N. (2016). The Remembering-Imagining System. Memory Studies, 9, 256–265. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F175069801664523

Cole, S. N., Morrison, C., Barak, O., Pauly-Takacs, K., & Conway, M. A. (2016). Amnesia and Future Thinking: Exploring the Role of Memory in the Quantity and Quality of Future Thoughts. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 206–224. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12094

Cole, S. N., Staugaard, S., & Berntsen, D. (2016). Inducing Involuntary and Voluntary Mental Time Travel using a laboratory paradigm. Memory and Cognition, 44, 376–389. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-015-0564-9

Cole, S. N., & Berntsen, D. (2016). Do Future Thoughts Reflect Personal Goals? Current Concerns and Mental Time Travel into the Past and Future. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69, 273–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1044542

Cole, S. N., Fotopoulou, A., Oddy, M., & Moulin, C. J. A. (2014). Implausible Future Events in a Confabulating Patient with an Anterior Communicating Artery Aneurism. Neurocase, 20, 208–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/13554794.2012.741259

Cole, S. N., Morrison, C. M., & Conway, M. A. (2013). Episodic Future Thinking: Linking Neuropsychological Performance and Episodic Detail in Young and Old Adults. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 1687–1706. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2012.758157

Cole, S. N., Gill, N., Conway, M. A., & Morrison, C. M. (2012). Mental Time Travel: Effects of Trial Duration on Episodic and Semantic Content. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 2288–2296. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2012.740053

Conference Presentations

“Spontaneous future thinking: Another route to prospection”. Invited talk at Bradford University, on 11^th December, 2019.

“The effect of coping skills on depression, anxiety, and autobiographical memory retrieval.” Poster presented at the Special Interest Meeting in Autobiographical Memory and Psychopathology on 5-6^th December, 2019.

Discussant in “Spontaneity in Future Thinking: A Forward-Looking Research Symposium”, European Society for Cognitive Psychology, Tenerife, 25-28th September, 2019.

“Perceived Functions of Involuntary and Voluntary Future Thoughts” at the Society for Applied Memory and Cognition, Cape Cod, 5-9th June, 2019.

“The Science of Future Thinking”. Invited talk at the annual British Science Festival 12th September 2018 at University of Hull.

“The effects of mental simulation on behaviour” Invited Psychology Department seminar, 11th October 2018 at University of Hertfordshire and October the 24th at Swansea University.

“Candidate mechanisms underlying spontaneous future thinking: A summary of three studies”, Mind wandering and Mindfulness conference, Northumbria University, 22^nd July 2018.

'Looking forward: The psychology of future thinking', British Psychological Society 'Psychology in the Pub' public event, Duke of York, York, 23rd October 2017.

'The effect of pulvinar damage on emotional processing of internally-generated past and future events', Symposium Talk, Federation of European Societies of Neuropsychology, 13-15 September 2017.

“The Effect of Pulvinar Damage on Emotional Processing of Simulated Scenes”, Symposium Talk, International Conference on Memory, 17-22^nd July 2016.

“The Goal-relatedness of Voluntary and Involuntary Future Thoughts Elicited in a Laboratory Task”, Invited Symposium Talk, Biannual Congress of the Swiss Psychological Society, Geneva, September 8-9^th 2015.

“The use of mental rehearsal to promote achievement of functional rehabilitation goals following acquired brain injury (ABI)” (Co-author), Poster Presentation, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Special Interest Group of the World Federation of Neurorehabilitation (WFNR), Australia, 6-7^th July 2015.  

“Episodic Future Thinking: The role of current and future concerns”, Symposium Talk, International Convention of Psychological Science (an APS event), Amsterdam, 12-14 March 2015.

“Mental Time Travel: Developing a Laboratory Paradigm for Inducing both its Involuntary and Voluntary Types”, Invited Seminar Talk, Department of Psychology, University of Hull, February, 2015.

“Inducing Involuntary and Voluntary Mental Time Travel in a Laboratory Paradigm”, Talk, Great Yorkshire Memory Meeting, University of Leeds, December, 2014.

“Differentiating Event Simulations: The Past, Imagined Past and Future” Poster, Social Perspectives on Autobiographical Memory, June, 2013.

“Deconstructing the Differences between Memory and Imagination” Talk, Experimental Psychology Society, Lancaster Meeting, April, 2013.

“Remembering your past to imagine your future”. ‘Three Minute Thesis’ Finalist Talk at Showcase Postgraduate Conference, University of Leeds, December, 2012.

“Exploring Subprocesses of Imagined Future Events”. Poster, International Conference on Memory, University of York, 31 July-5 August, 2011.

“The self and its role in constructing autobiographical future events”. Poster, Theoretical Perspectives on Autobiographical Memory, Aarhus University, Denmark. 13- 16 June, 2010.

“Autobiographical memory and its role in constructing imagined future events”. Talk, Greater Yorkshire Memory meeting, University of Hull, 4^th December, 2009.

“Past and Future Confabulation: A case study of MW”. Poster Presentation, Recollection Workshop (ESRC-funded), Descarte University Paris, France. 18^th December 2008. Awarded Poster Prize.                                                             

“Emotion, Drives and Confabulation”, Data Blitz Presentation (Talk), Emotion Conference, International Neuropsychoanalysis Society (ESRC-funded), King’s College London, 14th December 2007.

Grant Funding

• EEG correlates of Involuntary Memories at Encoding and Retrieval, funded by Experimental Psychology Society.
• Cognitive mechanisms underlying spontaneous future thoughts, funded by Experimental Psychology Society.