The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans

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. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.