The waning effect of episodic simulation on future choice

Everyday decisions about which activities to pursue draw on episodic memory, particularly through episodic simulation that allows people to pre-experience future actions. This study examined whether simulated activities are chosen more often than unsimulated ones across repeated decisions, and whether the content of the simulation influences this effect. Across three experiments, episodic simulation briefly increased the likelihood of choosing an activity—especially when participants imagined rather than planned it—but the effect diminished with repeated choices.