Future Thinking in Young Children

The study of future thinking is gaining momentum across various domains of psychology. Mentally projecting the self forward in time (i.e., mental time travel) is argued to be uniquely human and of vital importance to the evolution of human culture. Yet it is only recently that developmentalists have begun to study when, and how, this capacity emerges. I begin by outlining the concept of mental time travel, along with newly developed methodologies to test children’s ability to mentally project the self into the future. Data suggest that this ability is in place by ages 4 or 5 but also reveal conditions under which children may experience difficulty accurately predicting their future desires. I conclude by discussing how the research on children’s mental time travel can be used to further our understanding of the development of future-oriented behaviors, including planning and delaying gratification. KEYWORDS—future thinking; mental time travel; episodic memory; conceptual development; planning Humans spend a great deal of time anticipating, planning for, and contemplating the future. Our future thinking is directed toward such ordinary events as what to wear the next day or where to go for lunch, but also toward more significant choices that will potentially impact our long-term happiness and success, such as accepting a job or getting married. The fact that we think (and often ruminate) about these and numerous other aspects of our personal futures is argued to be a reflection of our cognitive capacity for mental time travel (e.g., Atance & Meltzoff, 2005; Suddendorf & Corballis, 2007; Tulving, 2005).