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What Will I Like Best When I'm All Grown Up? Preschoolers' Understanding of Future Preferences
Author(s) -
Bélanger Michèle J.,
Atance Cristina M.,
Varghese Anisha L.,
Nguyen Victoria,
Vendetti Corrie
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12282
Subject(s) - psychology , perspective (graphical) , developmental psychology , child development , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence
Three experiments investigated 3‐, 4‐, and 5‐year‐olds' ( N = 240) understanding that their future or “grown‐up” preferences may differ from their current ones (self‐future condition). This understanding was compared to children's understanding of the preferences of a grown‐up (adult‐now condition) or the grown‐up preferences of a same‐aged peer (peer‐future condition). Children's performance across all three conditions improved significantly with age. Moreover, children found it significantly more difficult to reason about their own future preferences than they did to reason either about an adult's preferences or the future preferences of a peer. These results have important implications for theories about future thinking and perspective‐taking abilities, more broadly.