title: Episodic memory and future thinking during early childhood: Linking the past and future.
abstract: Despite extensive examination of episodic memory and future thinking development, little is known about the concurrent emergence of these capacities during early childhood. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds participated in an episodic memory hiding task ("what, when, where" [WWW] components) with an episodic future thinking component. In Experiment 2, a group of 4-year-olds (including children from Experiment 1) participated in the same task (different objects and locations), providing the first longitudinal investigation of episodic memory and future thinking. Although children exhibited age-related improvements in recall, recognition, and binding of the WWW episodic memory components, there were no age-related changes in episodic future thinking. At both ages, WWW episodic memory performance was higher than future thinking performance, and episodic future thinking and WWW memory components were unrelated. These findings suggest that the WWW components of episodic memory are potentially less fragile than the future components when assessed in a cognitively demanding task.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 99 East Main St., Waterbury, CT, 06702.
authors: Kimberly
authors: K
authors: Cuevas
authors: School of Education, University of Delaware, 113 Willard Hall Education Building, Newark, DE, 19716.
authors: Vinaya
authors: V
authors: Rajan
authors: Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, 890 Drillfield Drive, Blacksburg, VA, 24061.
authors: Katherine C
authors: KC
authors: Morasch
authors: Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech, 890 Drillfield Drive, Blacksburg, VA, 24061.
authors: Martha Ann
authors: MA
authors: Bell
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology; D002666:Psychology, Child; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology
keywords: early childhood; episodic future thinking; episodic memory; longitudinal; memory binding; mental time travel