The Emergence of Episodic Foresight and Its Consequences

Imagining future events and adjusting current behavior accordingly is a hallmark of human cognition. The development of such episodic foresight is attracting increasing research attention. In this article, I review a selection of recent work on the emergence of episodic foresight and its role in different domains, including learning, deliberate practice, affective forecasting, intertemporal choices, and anxiety. Studies suggest that during the preschool years, children begin to consider future scenarios, enabling them to plan, prepare, and shape their future, but many other consequences, such as the role of developing foresight in anticipating hazards, remain unexamined. The potential predictive effects of early individual differences in episodic foresight on later cognitive capacities and developmental outcomes deserve closer scrutiny.