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When judging the relative difficulty of impossible actions within the context of a magical world like that of Harry Potter, individuals honor real-world causal principles (e.g., assuming that heavier objects would be harder to levitate than lighter ones even though levitation itself is impossible; Shtulman & Morgan, 2017). We examined whether this effect persists when events are presented outside of this context. U.S. (Studies 1 and 2) and Chinese (Study 2) adults were asked to rate the relative difficulty of two impossible events that varied according to an irrelevant causal principle in one of three contexts: present science, future science, or magical. Though Chinese and U.S. adults honored irrelevant causal principles to a similar degree across the three contexts, Chinese adults’ confidence in their judgments varied by context. Additionally, individual differences in cognitive reflection (U.S.) and fantasy engagement (Chinese) related to judgments. Findings indicate that adults honor irrelevant causal constraints when reasoning about the impossible across multiple contexts, though subtle differences exist at both the cultural and individual level.

Memory for the time associated with past events is critical for our understanding of episodic memory and its development. Relatively little is known about the factors that influence temporal memory development. One such factor examined in the literature is semantic knowledge for time (conventional time knowledge; CTK). Other possible factors include domain general skills (e.g., working memory). The goals of this study were to a) assess temporal memory for past events in middle to late childhood using a naturalistic, yet controlled task, b) examine the relation between temporal memory performance and CTK, c) examine the factors that support the development of conventional time knowledge, and d) test which factors best predict temporal memory performance. Participants included 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 11-year-olds and young adults (N = 140). They engaged in naturalistic events in unique locations in the lab over a span of 2-3 hours. One week later, participants were asked to place the events on an arbitrary timeline, and we measured deviations from the precise time that each event took place. Performance on the CTK task, but not age, contributed unique variance to accuracy in the timeline task, replicating findings from previous work. Further, vocabulary and working memory but not inhibitory control or age, were unique predictors of performance on the CTK task. Finally, vocabulary surpassed CTK task performance as a significant predictor of temporal memory. The implications of this work to our understanding of temporal memory, semantic knowledge for time and episodic memory development are discussed.

Prior research has used innovative paradigms to show that some non-human animal species demonstrate behavioural choices (i.e. foraging for a food item at a specific location, and at a time that guarantees it has not yet decayed), reflecting episodic-like or 'WWW' memory (memory for 'what' happened, 'where' and 'when'). These results raised the question of whether similar approaches could be used to examine memory in young children in order to reduce verbal demands. The present research examines the extent to which children's WWW memory aligns with memory-based choices in 3- to 5-year-olds (n = 95; study 1) and in 7- to 11-year-olds and adults (n = 168; study 2). Results indicate that preschoolers' struggle with choice-based tasks probably reflects difficulty integrating their WWW memory with an understanding that certain items decay over time. Moreover, a convergence between verbal recall measures and choice-based measures is observable in 7-year-olds and beyond, reflecting a stronger integration of memory signals, understanding of state transformation, and decision-making. This article is part of the theme issue 'Elements of episodic memory: lessons from 40 years of research'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Episodic memory is a critical capacity that involves remembering past events along with their spatial and temporal contexts. Relatively little is known about the relations between spatial and temporal information in long-term memory in children or adults. The present research examined the influence of the mental timeline (linear horizontal display extending from the left to right direction for English speakers) on memory for events and their spatial and temporal features in 7-year-olds, 9-year-olds, 11-year-olds and young adults (N = 146). During encoding, participants studied triplets of objects, varying on two dimensions of the mental timeline: linearity (whether objects were presented in linear succession or not) and direction (whether objects were presented from left-to-right or right-to-left). After a delay, during retrieval, participants were tested on their memory for individual objects, and either the spatial location or temporal order of the objects. We found that overall accuracy for spatial location was higher than accuracy for temporal order, and there was a parallel developmental trajectory for both these aspects of memory. Across age groups we found that memory for temporal order, but not spatial location, was influenced by linearity and direction (i.e., match to mental timeline). Thus, in both children and adults the spatiotemporal mental timeline supported memory for temporal order, converging with predictions generated within domains of language and thought and enhancing our understanding of how space and time are represented in the mind.

Our paper examines what is required to protect and promote effective public discussion and policy development in the current climate of divisive disagreement about many public policy questions. We use abortion as a case example precisely because it is morally fraught. We first consider the changes made by Dobbs , as well as those which led up to the Dobbs decision, accompany it, and follow from it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declarations and terminations of public health emergencies are performative utterances that shift the balance of governmental power and can change our world. They can provide and then extinguish the ability to provide grants andfunding, deploy the military, waive and modiht regulatory requirements, and curtail civil liberties, many times with limited legislative oversight. But public health emergency laws at every level are inconsistent at best and are being legislated in a reactionary manner that may limit the ability to effectively respond in juture public health emergencies. With such high stakes and during a time when executive agency authority is evolving, appropriate guidance on the felicity conditions for these performative utterances is thus urgently needed. Instead of simply accepting lengthy unfettered executive public health emergency powers or enacting strict legislative limitations on executive authority that could hinder an efective public health response in the future, this Article focuses on a singular first step in calling for a diverse, multi-disciplinary team of scholars and stakeholders to examine the existing web of public health emergency legislation and provide input and guidance on felicity conditions for declaring, continuing, and terminating specific public health emergencies that build in mechanisms for accountability and relevant, appropriate checks and balances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adults remember items with shared contexts as occurring closer in time to one another than those associated with different contexts, even when their objective temporal distance is fixed. Such temporal memory biases are thought to reflect within‐event integration and between‐event differentiation processes that organize events according to their contextual similarities and differences, respectively. Within‐event integration and between‐event differentiation are hypothesized to differentially rely on binding and control processes, which may develop at different ages. To test this hypothesis, 5‐ to 12‐year‐olds and adults (N = 134) studied quartets of image pairs that contained either the same scene (same‐context) or different scenes (different‐context). Participants remembered same‐context items as occurring closer in time by older childhood (7–9 years), whereas different‐context items were remembered as occurring farther apart by early adolescence (10–12 years). The differential emergence of these temporal memory biases suggests within‐event integration and between‐event differentiation emerge at different ages. Research Highlights: Children are less likely than adults to use contextual information (e.g., location) to organize their continuous experience in memory, as indicated by temporal memory biases.Biases reflecting within‐event integration (i.e., remembering elements with a shared context as occurring closer together in time) emerged in late childhood.Biases reflecting between‐event differentiation (i.e., remembering elements from different contexts as occurring farther apart in time) emerged in early adolescence.The differential emergence of biases reflecting within‐event integration and between‐event differentiation suggests they are distinct, yet complementary, processes that support developmental improvements in event memory organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Little is known about the mechanisms underlying a ubiquitous behavior in preschoolers, help-seeking. We tested the hypothesis that preschoolers' awareness of their own uncertainty is associated with help-seeking. Three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds (N = 125) completed a perceptual identification task twice: once independently and once when they could request help from a confederate whose competence level was manipulated. Consistent with our hypothesis, participants sought help more frequently on trials for which, when required to answer independently, they expressed lower confidence. Children in the bad-helper condition were slower to respond after receiving help than those in the good-helper condition. Finally, females and children with more advanced theory of mind were more likely to seek help, identifying additional factors that relate to help-seeking.

The ethnography presented by van Eijck and Roth focuses on the activities of people involved in a government funded internship program in conservation and restoration, which was offered by a "multidisciplinary research center" through a local First Nation adult education center. The internship was designed, in partnership with a local non-profit conservation society (OceanHealth), to appeal to First Nation men and women considering career change, returning to school, or re-entering the work place. The primary aim of the internship was to "provide authentic science for diverse student populations (and their teachers), with particular attention to the needs of students from First Nations, to become scientifically literate to the extent that it prepares them for participating in public debates, community decision-making, and personal living consistent with long-term environmentally sustainable forms of life". The authors report that at least one of the two interns was not interested in science and a WSANEC elder expressed dissatisfaction with the efforts to establish the nature park and its current approved uses. Van Eijck and Roth argue that the divergence between the project aims and the goals of the participants are a result of how "place" is viewed in place-based education and that disagreements like these can be resolved if place is theorized as chronotope. There are many interesting ideas raised and directions taken in the article by van Eijck and Roth. After several discussions during the review process, we decided to focus our forum response on the meaning of "place" in place-based education, the utility of theorizing place as a chronotope, the implications for teaching-learning ("education"), and musings on what remains unclear. (Contains 1 figure.)