The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans

@article{citeulike:304453, abstract = {In this paper, we discuss the construct of episodic future thinking. We have previously defined episodic future thinking as the ability to project oneself into the future to pre-experience an event (Atance \& O'Neill, 2001). We distinguish this type of thinking about the future from that which is largely based on a script of how an event routinely unfolds (e.g., a restaurant or birthday party script). This distinction is related to the episodic/semantic distinction that has been applied to memory (Tulving, 1972). We discuss tasks, both verbal and nonverbal, that we have developed for young children, and that we believe assess episodic future thinking. Based on our findings from these tasks, we conclude that episodic future thinking emerges between 3 and 4 years of age. Throughout the paper, we attempt to specify the nature of the projection associated with episodic future thinking by elaborating upon how children's behavior in the tasks we discuss, as well as their behaviors in other contexts, are a reflection of this projection.}, author = {Atance, Cristina M. and O'Neill, Daniela K. }, citeulike-article-id = {304453}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2005.02.003}, journal = {Learning and Motivation}, keywords = {constructive-memory, memory, prospection}, month = {May}, number = {2}, pages = {126--144}, posted-at = {2007-05-01 18:40:23}, priority = {2}, title = {The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2005.02.003}, volume = {36}, year = {2005} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:304453 L3 - citeulike-article-id:304453 TI - The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans JF - Learning and Motivation VL - 36 IS - 2 SP - 126 EP - 144 N2 - In this paper, we discuss the construct of episodic future thinking. We have previously defined episodic future thinking as the ability to project oneself into the future to pre-experience an event (Atance & O'Neill, 2001). We distinguish this type of thinking about the future from that which is largely based on a script of how an event routinely unfolds (e.g., a restaurant or birthday party script). This distinction is related to the episodic/semantic distinction that has been applied to memory (Tulving, 1972). We discuss tasks, both verbal and nonverbal, that we have developed for young children, and that we believe assess episodic future thinking. Based on our findings from these tasks, we conclude that episodic future thinking emerges between 3 and 4 years of age. Throughout the paper, we attempt to specify the nature of the projection associated with episodic future thinking by elaborating upon how children's behavior in the tasks we discuss, as well as their behaviors in other contexts, are a reflection of this projection. KW - constructive-memory KW - memory KW - prospection AU - Atance, Cristina AU - O'Neill, Daniela PY - 2005/05// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2005.02.003 ER -