O'Brien Bronwyn, Ebeid Mohamed, Atance Cristina M
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2024 Sep;42(3):409-424. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12505. Epub 2024 Jun 24.
Do children consider temporal distance in their reasoning about the world? Using a novel method that relied minimally on verbal ability, we asked N = 106 3- to 6-year-olds to judge which of two characters felt more 'happy'/'sad' right now: one engaging in a pleasant/unpleasant activity tomorrow or another engaging in this same activity when they are a year older. That is, we examined whether children understood that the closer in time a future event, the more intense the currently felt emotion. Starting at age 4, children correctly judged which child was more 'happy'/'sad' right now. However, 4- to 6-year-olds tended not to explain their judgements by referring to temporal distance, per se. Results suggest that children are sensitive to temporal distance early in development, but do not yet verbally express this understanding. Implications for theories about children's future thinking and future areas of research are discussed.
儿童在对世界的推理中会考虑时间距离吗？我们采用了一种对语言能力依赖极小的新方法，询问了106名3至6岁的儿童，判断两个角色中哪个此刻感觉更“开心”/“悲伤”：一个明天要进行一项愉快/不愉快的活动，另一个在他们一岁大时进行同样的活动。也就是说，我们研究了儿童是否理解未来事件在时间上越接近，当前感受到的情绪就越强烈。从4岁开始，儿童就能正确判断哪个孩子此刻更“开心”/“悲伤”。然而，4至6岁的儿童倾向于不通过提及时间距离本身来解释他们的判断。结果表明，儿童在发展早期对时间距离很敏感，但尚未用语言表达这种理解。本文还讨论了这些结果对儿童未来思维理论和未来研究领域的启示。
