Children’s episodic foresight, the ability to mentally project oneself into the future to pre-experience an event (e.g., Atance & O’Neill, 2005 Atance, C. M., & O’Neill, D. K. (2005). Preschoolers’ talk about future situations. First Language, 25(1), 5–18. doi:10.1177/0142723705045678[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), begins to emerge early in the preschool years. Results from the Picture-book task (Atance & Meltzoff, 2005 Atance, C. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2005). My future self: Young children’s ability to anticipate and explain future states. Cognitive Development, 20(3), 341–361. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2005.05.001[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) have shown that children are generally capable of selecting an item needed in the future (from provided options), but young preschoolers have difficulty justifying their choice with future-oriented explanations. Because episodic foresight has typically been measured using forced-choice questions (such as the Picture-book task) less is known about children’s more naturalistic and “open-ended” future thinking (i.e., more spontaneous forms of episodic foresight). Forty-eight 3-to 5-year-olds completed a new, open-ended version of the Picture-book task. Using a descriptive approach, we found that children were able to generate an appropriate item to bring with them to a future location, and that this ability improved with age. Temporal focus as well as internal (episodic) and external (semantic) details were explored in the context of children’s explanations. Children’s explanations were mostly present-oriented and included episodic and semantic details equally. Our findings extend our knowledge of children’s episodic foresight by highlighting children’s ability to solve future-oriented problems in an open-ended manner.

儿童的情景性先见之明，具有在心理上将自己投射到未来以预先体验某项事件的能力（例如，Atance＆O'Neill，2005年） Atance，CM和O'Neill，DK（2005）。学龄前儿童谈论未来的情况。第一语言，25（1），5 – 18。doi：10.1177 / 0142723705045678 [Crossref] 和[Google Scholar]）在学龄前期就开始出现。图画书任务的结果（Atance和Meltzoff，2005年 Atance，CM和Meltzoff，AN（2005）。我的未来自我：幼儿预测和解释未来状态的能力。认知发展，20（3），341 – 361。doi：10.1016 / j.cogdev.2005.05.001 [Crossref]，[PubMed]，[Web of Science®]  ，[Google Scholar]）表明，儿童通常能够（从提供的选项中）选择将来需要的物品，但是年轻的学龄前儿童很难用面向未来的解释来证明他们的选择是正确的。因为通常使用强迫选择问题（例如图画书任务）来衡量情节性的先见之明，所以对儿童更自然主义和“开放式”未来思维（即，情节性预见的更多自发形式）的了解较少。48岁的3至5岁儿童完成了图画书任务的开放式新版本。使用描述性方法，我们发现孩子们能够产生合适的物品以将他们带到未来的地点，并且这种能力随着年龄的增长而提高。在儿童的解释范围内，探索了时间重点以及内部（个别）和外部（语义）细节。儿童的解释大多以当下为导向，并且平等地包含情节和语义上的细节。我们的发现通过强调儿童以开放式方式解决面向未来的问题的能力，扩展了我们对儿童情景性预见的认识。