Is this sentience, sentience & a whole bunch of other things, or something else?
Psychology
A prey animal sees another animal, and this new animal has been established as a potential predator. The prey responds to this threat based on;
>what it sees in front of it (present event),
>what it knows about what it sees (past knowledge mixed with instinct),
>what it knows/predicts will happen if it does nothing (short term future prediction = death).
~ a different scenario
A human being is both prey and predator depending on the context. If a human being fears an apex predator but imagines a future where they don't have to just run away from those predators, say;
>a future where those predators have been removed or displaced
>a future where they have weapons to attack back or deal with the predators as they come effectively
>a future where they are defended from the predators some other way
Humans can chart a course from one of these idealized futures, back to the present in sequential stages, and change their present actions in response to a long term future calculation (or gamble maybe). Like stepping stones.
Humans can, but don’t have to respond dynamically to each game they play, or each situation they face. Humans can establish a game as "solved", by which they have beaten both the game they currently play, but also every future iteration of that game (ie tic tac toe). We can sit in our minds and build mazes within mazes, brooding on things that have happened, will happen, or might happen, and we can respond to these imaginings as if they were happening to us in the present (they are, but its an emotional response to a simulation, calculation or hypothetical).