Lingers

Philosophers and psychologists have noted that our stream of thought echoes recent and distant memories, and that each moment informs the meaning of the next1,2. Here we demonstrated that the extent of this history dependence is not a fixed parameter. Instead, the extent to which our recent past lingers into subsequent thought increases as a function of processing depth26,53. The more we consider the deep situation-level meaning of an experience, the more likely it will exert a lasting mental context and shape the trajectory of our subsequent thoughts.

lingers