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Episodic prospection is the ability to mentally simulate personal future events that are rich in contextual detail and plausible for the individual. It therefore incorporates episodic information (who, what, where, and when of a particular event), as well as details about one's self (e.g., knowledge, goals, motivations and desires). The ability to mentally simulate personal future events is thought to serve an adaptive purpose as it allows the individual to plan actions that align with his or her future goals and challenges. This review seeks to integrate research exploring how changes in episodic memory and self-concept, and their associated neural mechanisms, contribute to the development of episodic prospection between childhood and adolescence. Elucidating the mechanisms contributing to this development is critical for understanding its potential influence on learning, goal achievement, and pedagogy between childhood and adolescence.

Schemas capture patterns across multiple experiences, accumulating information about common event structures that guide decision making in new contexts. Schemas are an important principle of leading theories of cognitive development; yet, we know little about how children and adolescents form schemas and use schematic knowledge to guide decisions. Here, we show that the ability to acquire schematic knowledge based on the temporal regularities of events increases during childhood and adolescence. Furthermore, we show that temporally mediated schematic knowledge biases reasoning decisions in an age-dependent manner. Participants with greater temporal schematic knowledge were more likely to infer that temporally related items shared other, non-temporal properties, with adults showing the greatest relationship between schema knowledge and reasoning choices. These data indicate that the mechanisms underlying schema formation and expression are not fully developed until adulthood and may reflect the ongoing maturation of hippocampus and prefrontal cortex through adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although positive effects of future thinking have been demonstrated, the effects of future thinking on children's academic achievement are less known. We examined the effects of three forms of thinking about the future or alternative outcomes on math performance in 9- to 12-year-olds (N = 127). After a math pre-assessment, participants were asked to think about math success according to a between-subjects condition: episodic prospection (episodically simulating a personal future event), semantic prospection (thinking about the future in a non-personal, general sense), or episodic counterfactual thinking (episodically simulating an alternative past event). Results show that semantic prospection promoted gains in mean math accuracy and a greater proportion of 3rd-person visual perspective. A 3rd-person visual perspective also related to gains in mean math accuracy across conditions. Semantic prospection may be a more beneficial form of future thinking in some contexts, perhaps because it supports greater psychological distancing. Academic achievement interventions may benefit from targeting specific forms of future thinking. • Semantic prospection related to math accuracy gains in older children. • Episodic prospection and counterfactual thinking did so to a lesser extent. • Semantic prospection was associated with more 3rd-person visual perspective taking. • A 3rd-person visual perspective predicted math accuracy gains. • Envisioned clarity and strategies differed by type of future thinking and age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to experience uncertainty (i.e., uncertainty monitoring) is an important skill that enables us to optimize our performance by acting cautiously or seeking additional information when we feel uncertain, and by expressing our knowledge when we feel certain (i.e., uncertainty control). Research reveals that even young preschoolers can introspect on uncertainty and act appropriately based on these introspections. We conclude that uncertainty monitoring and control can be driving forces of cognitive development during the preschool years. In this article, we review the emerging literature on this topic, highlight open questions, and draw connections with other research domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]