Search Results (18)

Rapid climate change and accelerated urbanization expose the limitations of land use planning approaches grounded in static spatial allocation and assumptions of predictable futures. Contemporary urban systems are increasingly characterized by continuous socio-economic–ecological transformation, requiring planning paradigms capable of engaging with change as a persistent condition rather than an episodic disruption. This paper develops a conceptual framework that reframes urban land use planning as the governance of land use change over time. Drawing on resilience thinking, systems perspectives, and the Time Quality Assessment (TQA) approach, the framework conceptualizes urban form as a temporally dynamic system whose performance must be assessed across duration, adaptability, and long-term trajectories of change. Rather than relying on empirical case studies, the paper advances a theory-driven synthesis that foregrounds temporal resilience as a core dimension of spatial performance under climate uncertainty. By positioning TQA as a conceptual–operational interface for engaging with temporal dynamics, the paper challenges static and deterministic planning models and argues for a shift from managing land use toward stewarding land use change. The framework offers a coherent foundation for future empirical research and for the development of planning practices oriented toward robustness, adaptability, and long-term responsibility in uncertain urban futures. Full article

Episodic future thinking (EFT) has been confirmed as a promising cognitive intervention for enhancing prospective memory (PM), yet emerging evidence suggests its effects may depend on the specificity of induction. The current study investigated this issue by dichotomizing EFT into two distinct methods: specific (researcher-guided detailed mental simulations) versus non-specific (participants’ self-guided imagination), implemented through differentially structured future thinking instructions. We also analyzed the distinct cognitive strategies mainly employed under each EFT condition based on the Dynamic Multiprocess Framework. The latent profile analysis (LPA) was further conducted to characterize individual variability in responsiveness to EFT manipulations. Behavioral results revealed comparable PM accuracy improvements across both EFT methods relative to the control group; moreover, specific EFT uniquely accelerated response times for both PM and ongoing task execution. The LPA further identified three distinct EFT response patterns—self-competent, proactive, and reactive—each exhibiting unique state-dependent cognitive characteristics. These findings provide a refined understanding of the EFT-PM relationship: (1) specific EFT facilitates more automatic retrieval of PM intentions, whereas non-specific EFT predominantly engages strategic monitoring; (2) individual differences in baseline mental images influence the effectiveness of EFT methods, suggesting the potential benefits of personalized intervention approaches for PM enhancement. Full article

Building on Gutman’s (1987) argument that architectural practice should reflect the nature of the problem, this article explores four eras of architectural practice: the Patronage Model, the Clientage Model, the Transitional Models, and Future Models. Each era is examined in relation to six “Questions of Praxis”: (1) What is the nature of the problem?, (2) What is the nature of the intervention?, (3) What knowledge is valued?, (4) What is the stance toward the problem?, (5) What is the continuity in the relationship?, and (6) What is the prioritization of professional obligations? Through a comparative analysis of questions 2–5—the analytic core of action-taking—alongside four drivers of change in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous world, yields 16 possible futures for architects. Further synthesis identifies five primary roles for architects of the future: systems-thinking designer (embracing complexity), steward (building trust amid volatility), facilitator (reducing ambiguity through shared meaning), curator (making sense of uncertainty), and strategic forecaster (transforming volatility into preparedness). These roles embody a care-based approach—prioritizing ongoing relationships over episodic interventions, collective capacity-building over expert prescriptions, and adaptive readiness over static solutions. This reflects the positioning of architecture as a public good, focused on strengthening social, ecological, and systemic foundations so communities not only withstand disruption but also adapt, learn, and thrive through it. Full article

Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a mental disorder with a high prevalence rate and a high recurrence rate. Therefore, identifying and intervening in the core symptoms of MDD patients is of great significance. Anhedonia is manifested as an individual losing interest in activities or experiencing a significant decrease in the sense of pleasure, which is one of the two core symptoms of MDD. Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) training refers to the process of stimulating individuals’ hope for positive future scenarios and encouraging them to take purposeful actions, which may have an effect in alleviating anhedonia. However, the perception of anhedonia of MDD patients among Chinese healthcare professionals is still unclear, and there has been no exploration of the views of healthcare professionals regarding the implementation of EFT training for MDD patients led by psychiatric nurses in a clinical setting. Aim: This study aimed to understand the attention paid by Chinese healthcare professionals to the symptom of anhedonia in patients with MDD, as well as their previous coping strategies. This study further explored the views of healthcare professionals regarding the implementation of EFT training for MDD patients led by psychiatric nurses with a psychological therapist certificate in China, as well as suggestions for future implementation. Methods: This qualitative descriptive study adopted a phenomenological approach. Using purposive sampling, 15 healthcare professionals (psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and psychological counselors) were recruited from the psychiatry department of a public tertiary hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Using the NVivo 12 Plus software, the semi-structured interviews and analyses were conducted by applying Colaizzi’s seven-step phenomenological method. Rigor was ensured through checks of credibility, dependability, and confirmability during data collection and analysis. Results: A thematic analysis revealed that, while psychia-trists and psychological counselors viewed anhedonia as a significant treatment target, nurses were more focused on immediate patient safety concerns. Participants recognized the potential of EFT training to alleviate anhedonia but identified several implementation challenges, including patient resistance, cognitive limitations, and the need for tailored interventions. Conclusions: The research results indicated that psychiatric nurses had relatively poor ability to identify anhedonia. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the awareness of psychiatric nurses regarding the clinical significance of anhedonia, and incorporate knowledge related to anhedonia into routine nursing training. It is suggested that communication and collaboration among psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and psychological counselors should be strengthened, and an assessment and feedback process for the lack of anhedonia in patients with MDD should be established, so as to assist these patients in achieving faster psychological recovery. Given the sufficient staffing conditions in the field of psychiatry nursing in China, the design concept and curriculum of EFT training for psychiatry nurses with a psychological therapist certificate should be promoted. Encourage psychiatry nurses with a psychological therapist certificate to conduct offline and online group EFT training intervention forms for MDD patients in the hospital wards during their hospitalization periods, as well as after discharge at home. Full article

Previous research has demonstrated that episodic future thinking (EFT) can enhance prospective memory (PM); however, its effects on older adults have been less explored. This study examines the impact of EFT training on PM in both older and younger adults under varying delay intervals. Experiment 1 employed a 2 (EFT training: present vs. absent) × 2 (age: younger adults vs. older adults) × 2 (delay interval: 5 min vs. 20 min) between-subjects design. The results revealed a significant main effect of EFT training (p < 0.001), indicating that such training improves PM performance. Among younger adults, a significant difference in PM performance was found between the trained and untrained groups (p = 0.03), while among older adults, this difference was only marginally significant. This suggests that the facilitative effect of EFT training is more pronounced in younger adults. Additionally, there was a significant main effect of delay interval (p = 0.01), with shorter intervals yielding better PM performance than longer intervals. Experiment 2 focused on the impact of specificity in EFT training on PM in both age groups. A 2 (training: specific vs. non-specific) × 2 (age: younger vs. older adults) × 2 (delay interval: 5 min vs. 20 min) between-subjects design was used. Results indicated that older adults in the specific training group outperformed those in the non-specific training group (p = 0.03), whereas no difference was observed among younger adults. This finding suggests that specific training is more effective for enhancing prospective memory in older adults. Moreover, older adults exhibited differences based on the delay interval, with a 20 min interval impairing performance (p = 0.04), while younger adults showed no difference between the two intervals. These findings will be discussed in relation to the Multiprocess Model and the Preparatory Attention and Memory Processes Theory. Full article

Background: This study aimed to delineate the interplay between depression, hopelessness, and episodic future thinking (EFT), focusing on cognitive biases towards negative future thinking that are central to depressive symptomatically. Methods: A Japanese university student was utilized to scrutinize divergences in EFT across groups stratified by varying degrees of depression and hopelessness. The research leveraged a modified future thinking task (FTT), the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II to gauge participants’ levels of hopelessness and depressive symptoms. Results: Consistent with prior research, the non-depressed group showed a reduction in positive EFT, reinforcing the idea that diminished positive future thinking is a hallmark of depressive conditions, even in the absence of a clinical diagnosis. Moreover, individuals with comorbid depression and elevated hopelessness demonstrated a significant decrease in positive EFT and an increase in negative EFT, substantiating a distinctive cognitive profile for this subgroup. This finding suggests that the presence of hopelessness exacerbates the negative cognitive biases associated with depression. Conclusions: The study emphasizes the importance of considering hopelessness as an independent construct when assessing EFT in clinical contexts. The pronounced impact of hopelessness on future thinking in those with depression suggests that targeted interventions, such as future-directed therapy (FDT), may be particularly effective for individuals with hopelessness depression by focusing on modifying negative future thinking patterns and enhancing life quality. Full article

Background. Episodic future thinking (EFT) has shown efficacy in laboratory settings. We conducted a pilot goal-oriented EFT (GoEFT) intervention in a real-world setting to help low-income overweight or obese mothers lose weight. This paper presents intervention acceptability and efficacy. Methods. The study used a single-group, before–after design. During the 3-week intervention, participants (N = 15) completed weekly web-based lessons and online health coaching sessions to manage stress and emotion, eat healthier, and be more physically active. Participants completed online surveys at baseline and immediately after the intervention. They also completed an interview to evaluate intervention acceptability. We applied paired t-tests to evaluate efficacy and used content analysis to discover interview themes. Results. Participants consistently identified the intervention as acceptable, noting the usefulness of pre-written goals, GoEFT strategies, and goal progress evaluations. The intervention effectively promoted weight loss (d = −0.69), fruit and vegetable intake (d = 0.45–0.49), and emotion control (d = 0.71). It also reduced fat (d = −0.51) and added sugar intake (d = −0.48) and alleviated stress (d = −0.52). Moreover, the intervention increased autonomous motivation (d = 0.75–0.88) and self-efficacy (d = 0.46–0.61). Conclusion. The GoEFT intervention was acceptable to participants, showing strong preliminary efficacy. Full article

Parenting is a crucial environmental factor in children’s social and cognitive development. This study investigated the association between parenting styles and future-oriented cognition skills in elementary school-aged children. Cross-sectional data were collected from parents of 200 Iranian elementary school aged children (6–13 years), 139 boys and 61 girls. Baumrind’s Parenting Styles Questionnaire and Children’s Future Thinking Questionnaire (CFTQ) were administered to parents. There was a significant positive association between authoritative parenting and children’s abilities in prospective memory, episodic foresight, planning, delay of gratification, and future-oriented cognition total score. In contrast, authoritarian parenting was negatively correlated with children’s abilities in planning, delay of gratification, and future-oriented cognition. Increases in authoritative parenting scores predicted better future-oriented cognition abilities in children. Full article

Background: The available treatments for people with excess weight have shown small effects. Cognitive training has shown promising results, but most of the research focused on normal-weight university students and reported immediate results after a single training session. This parallel group, randomized, controlled trial aims to study the efficacy of a program for the comprehensive cognitive treatment of excess weight. Methods and Analysis: Participants will be 150 people with excess weight recruited through social media, who will be randomized into three groups: cognitive intervention, sham cognitive intervention, and treatment as usual. All assessment and intervention sessions will be online in groups of 5–6 participants. The three groups will attend a motivational interviewing session, and they will receive individualized diet and physical exercise guidelines throughout the program. The cognitive training will consist of four weekly sessions of approximately 60–90 min, each based on approach–avoidance bias training, inhibitory control training, implementation of intentions, and episodic future thinking, respectively. The main outcome measure will be a change in Body Mass Index (kg/m²). Secondary outcomes include changes in cognitive measures, eating and physical exercise behaviors, and anthropometric measures. Assessments will be conducted up to 6 months after the end of the program. In addition, data on the use of the health system will be collected to analyze the cost-effectiveness and the cost-utility of training. Linear mixed models will be used for statistical analysis. Findings of this study will expand the available evidence on cognitive interventions to reduce excess weight. Full article

Cigarette smokers show excessive delay discounting (devaluation of delayed rewards), which may contribute to tobacco use disorder. Episodic future thinking (EFT), or mental simulation of future events, has been shown to reduce both delay discounting and laboratory smoking behavior. Traditionally, EFT involves vividly imagining positive future events. In this preliminary investigation, we examined the effects of EFT specifically about smoking-related illness (SRI) on delay discounting, cigarette craving, and behavioral economic demand for cigarettes. In a 2 (episodic thinking) × 2 (smoking-related illness) factorial design, we randomly assigned smokers from Amazon Mechanical Turk to one of two EFT groups: EFT alone or EFT + SRI; or one of two episodic “recent” thinking (ERT) control groups: ERT alone or ERT + SRI. Both EFT groups generated and imagined positive future events, while both ERT groups imagined real events from the recent past. Both EFT + SRI and ERT + SRI groups imagined these events while also experiencing SRI symptoms. Participants then completed assessments of delay discounting, cigarette craving, and measures of cigarette demand. We observed significant main effects on delay discounting of both EFT (reduced discounting) and SRI (increased discounting), as well as significant main effects of both EFT and SRI on cigarette craving (in both cases, reduced craving). No significant main effect of EFT was observed on cigarette demand measures, although we observed a main effect of SRI on quantity of demand when cigarettes were free (Q0) (reduced demand). In all analyses, we observed no significant EFT × SRT interactions, indicating that these variables operate independently of one another. These methods may be adapted for use in clinical treatment to aid in smoking cessation interventions. Full article

Although successive pandemic episodes adversely affect populations and it remains difficult to assess their long-term extent and impact, they may, paradoxically, have a positive effect. In fact, they can promote awareness by reviving a form of reflexivity with respect to public health, economic and social policies, and by driving in-depth reflection on the measures that must be taken to limit the current and future imbalances caused by human activity. Habermas emphasises that the reflexive “push” is no longer just a matter for experts; it is also collective, historical, and political, in the sense that it involves citizens who intend to weigh in on the debate and make their voices and wishes heard by policy-makers and economic actors. Reflecting upon the ethics of responsibility (Weber) is therefore essential. If we are to follow Giddens and Habermas’ thinking, this reflexivity represents an integral part of the modern age. Our intention, in this article, is to show how major events, beyond an initial period of shock, can help to awake different levels of reflexivity in individuals. Full article

Recent research has assessed pupil size during past thinking in patients with retrograde amnesia. Building on this research, we assessed pupil size during future thinking in a retrograde amnesia patient. To this end, we measured pupil size during past and future thinking in L, a 19-year-old, right-handed man free of neurological/psychiatric disorders except for retrograde amnesia that occurred after an episode of fugue. During a past thinking condition, we invited L to retrieve retrograde events (i.e., events that occurred before amnesia) and anterograde events (i.e., events that occurred after amnesia). During a future thinking condition, we invited him to imagine events that might occur the following week, the following month, and in the new year. Past and future thinking occurred while L’s pupil size was monitored with eye-tracking glasses. L demonstrated higher specificity during future than during past thinking. Critically, the results demonstrated a larger pupil size during future than during past thinking. The larger pupil size during future thinking observed in L can be attributed to the high cognitive load involved in future thinking. Our study not only demonstrates preserved future thinking in a patient with dissociative retrograde amnesia, but also shows that pupillometry can be used for the physiological assessment of future thinking in retrograde amnesia patients. Full article

Delay discounting and operant demand are two behavioral economic constructs that tend to covary, by degree, with cigarette smoking status. Given historically robust associations between adverse health outcomes of smoking, a strong preference for immediate reinforcement (measured with delay discounting), and excessive motivation to smoke cigarettes (measured with operant demand), researchers have made numerous attempts to attenuate the extent to which behaviors corresponding to these constructs acutely appear in smokers. One approach is episodic future thinking, which can reportedly increase the impact of future events on present decision making as well as reduce the reinforcing value of cigarettes. Graphic cigarette pack warning labels may also reduce smoking by increased future orientation. Experiment 1 evaluated the combined effects of episodic future thinking and graphic warning labels on delay discounting; Experiment 2 evaluated solely the effects of episodic future thinking on delay discounting and operant demand. We observed no statistically significant effects of episodic future thinking when combined with graphic warning labels or when assessed on its own. These results serve as a call for further research on the boundary conditions of experimental techniques reported to alter behaviors associated with cigarette smoking. Full article

Relapse to smoking continues to be among the most urgent global health concerns. Novel, accessible, and minimally invasive treatments to aid in smoking cessation are likely to improve the reach and efficacy of smoking cessation treatment. Encouraging prospection by decreasing delay discounting (DD) is a new therapeutic target in the treatment of smoking cessation. Two early-stage interventions, delivered remotely and intended to increase prospection, decrease DD and promote cessation are Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) and Future Thinking Priming (FTP). EFT and FTP have demonstrated at least modest reductions in delay discounting, but understanding whether these interventions are internally valid (i.e., are accomplishing the stated intention) is key. This study examined the internal validity of EFT and FTP. Participants (n = 20) seeking to quit smoking were randomly assigned to active or control conditions of EFT and FTP. Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC2015) was used to examine the language participants used while engaged in the tasks. Results revealed significant differences in the language participants used in the active and control conditions. Women employed more words than men, but no other demographic differences were found in language. The active conditions for both tasks showed a greater emphasis on future orientation. Risk-avoidance was significantly higher in the active vs. control condition for EFT. Remote delivery of both EFT and FTP was valid and feasible as participants adhered to instructions in the remote prompts, and trends in DD were in the expected directions. Full article

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has magnified the insufficient readiness of humans in dealing with such an unexpected occurrence. During the pandemic, sustainable development goals have been hindered severely. Various observations and lessons have been highlighted to emphasise local impacts on a single region or single sector, whilst the holistic and coupling impacts are rarely investigated. This study overviews the structural changes and spatial heterogeneities of changes in healthcare, energy and environment, and offers perspectives for the in-depth understanding of the COVID-19 impacts on the three sectors, in particular the cross-sections of them. Practical observations are summarised through the broad overview. A novel concept of the healthcare–energy–environment nexus under climate change constraints is proposed and discussed, to illustrate the relationships amongst the three sectors and further analyse the dynamics of the attention to healthcare, energy and environment in view of decision-makers. The society is still on the way to understanding the impacts of the whole episode of COVID-19 on healthcare, energy, environment and beyond. The raised nexus thinking could contribute to understanding the complicated COVID-19 impacts and guiding sustainable future planning. Full article