Abstract: Collective future has been a subject of great concern in political science, communication science, sociology and other disciplines, but little is known about collective future thought in psychology -- that is, how individuals think about the future of a group. Individual future thought and collective future thought are separable and collective future thought can be studied as an independent field. The discussion of collective future thought is helpful to deepen the study of future psychological time and provide theoretical basis for the research of collective future. The paper aims to explain the concept of collective future thought, clarify the memory basis of collective future thought, and propose the possible direction of future researches. Firstly, the paper summarizes the concept of collective future thought, which literally means imagining a group event that has not yet happened. In this concept, imagination refers to the collective, imagined future events can be specific or schematic, and there are interactions between different groups. Like collective memory, collective future thought is a multiple and controversial process. The study of collective future thought is often based on collective memory. Therefore, to give a definition of collective future thought, starting from the perspective of collective memory is one of the methods. The two concepts related to collective memory, "future as after-thought" and "future as forethought", are used to define collective future thought. Meanwhile, these two concepts also constitute the complex interaction between collective memory and collective future thought in the collective context. Secondly, although no empirical study can directly prove the memory basis of collective future thought, it can be concluded from some related concepts and case analysis of patients with amnesia that the memory basis of collective future thought may related to semantic memory more closely. Firstly, previous studies have focused on episodic memory in individual mental time travel, while collective mental time travel is a psychological process involving more about semantic memory, so episodic memory has more influence on individual future thought, but semantic memory may play a greater role in collective future thought. Secondly, studies from neuropsychology and neuroimaging also prove that semantic memory is more closely related to collective future thought. Studies show that some amnesic patients have defects in episodic memory and episodic future thought, but their semantic memory is intact and they can imagine the future of the collective domain. Thirdly, hippocampus damage impairs the individual future thought, but the collective future thought ability remains intact, indicating that hippocampus doesn't play an important role in collective future thought. Meanwhile, non-hippocampal future scene construction exists and it may have an important relationship with collective future thought. There are many researches on the brain mechanism of collective future thought based on amnesic patients, but few researches on the brain mechanism of collective future thought in normal population. Finally, the paper puts forward the prospect of the future research of collective future thought. Firstly, more suitable experimental paradigms and measurement questionnaires should be developed. Secondly, future collective future thought should be based on Chinese culture. Finally, future studies can explore the brain mechanism of collective future thought in normal population.

Key words: collective future thought, collective memory, semantic memory

摘要： 集体未来思考是指想象一个尚未发生的群体事件，其与集体记忆之间存在着复杂的相互作用。目前对集体未来思考的研究发现它的记忆基础更多为语义记忆。而有关集体未来思考的脑机制研究则相对较少，但在遗忘症患者中发现个体未来思考和集体未来思考是可分离的，并且非海马依赖的未来场景构建与集体未来思考可能存在重要联系。未来研究应该注重不同文化背景下的集体未来思考，探讨其产生条件及影响因素，并加强在正常人群中神经机制的研究，以更好地揭示集体未来思考的实质。

关键词: 集体未来思考, 集体记忆, 语义记忆