Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 102, Issue 4, Pages 379-391Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2009.01.001
Keywords
Cognitive development; Future orientation; Mental time travel; Planning; Delay of gratification; Prospective memory
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Although previous research has identified a number of interesting aspects of future thinking in adults, little is known about the developmental trajectory and coherence of future-oriented behaviors during early childhood. The primary goal of this study was to explore these issues by administering a battery of tasks assessing different aspects of future thinking, including mental time travel, delay of gratification, planning, and prospective memory, to 72 preschoolers. Results revealed that performance on all of the tasks increased significantly between 3 and 5 years of age. Although most tasks were correlated, Suggesting behavioral coherence, many of these significant correlations dropped out once age and receptive vocabulary were controlled. These results are discussed with respect to theories about, and measurement of, future orientation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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