Development of Episodic Prospection: Factors Underlying Improvements in Middle and Late Childhood

Episodic prospection is the mental simulation of a personal future event in rich contextual detail. This study examined age‐related differences in episodic prospection in 5‐ to 11‐year‐olds and adults (N = 157), as well as factors that may contribute to developmental improvements. Participants’ narr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 2019-07, Vol.90 (4), p.1109-1122
Main Authors: Coughlin, Christine, Robins, Richard W., Ghetti, Simona
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age differences
Analysis of Variance
Child
Child Development
Childhood
Children
Coherence
Contextual information
Female
Humans
Imagination
Male
Memory, Episodic
Mental simulation
Narration
Narratives
Psychology, Child
Self Concept
Simulation
Young Adult
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Summary:Episodic prospection is the mental simulation of a personal future event in rich contextual detail. This study examined age‐related differences in episodic prospection in 5‐ to 11‐year‐olds and adults (N = 157), as well as factors that may contribute to developmental improvements. Participants’ narratives of past, future, and make‐believe events were coded for episodic content, and self‐concept coherence (i.e., how coherently an individual sees himself or herself) and narrative ability were tested as predictors of episodic prospection. Although all ages provided less episodic content for future event narratives, age‐related improvements were observed across childhood, suggesting future event generation is particularly difficult for children. Self‐concept coherence and narrative ability each independently predicted the episodic content of 5‐ and 7‐year‐olds’ future event narratives.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/cdev.13001