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Preparation for certain and uncertain future outcomes in young children and three species of monkey

Thomas Suddendorf1, Kate Watson1, Maddison Bogaart1

  • 1School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Developmental Psychobiology
|August 3, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Three-year-old children can prepare for uncertain future events, but only for one possibility at a time. This capacity for simultaneous preparation for mutually exclusive events appears to be underdeveloped in young children and absent in monkeys.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Comparative Psychology
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

Background:

  • Understanding the development of future event preparation is crucial for cognitive science.
  • Investigating the evolution of anticipatory behaviors offers insights into comparative cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the capacity of 3-year-old children and various monkey species to prepare for immediate future events.
  • To determine if simultaneous preparation for mutually exclusive future events develops early in humans and if it is present in non-human primates.

Main Methods:

  • Children and monkeys were presented with tube apparatuses requiring preparation for potential target emergence from two exits.
  • Behavioral responses were recorded under conditions of certainty and uncertainty regarding target location.

Main Results:

  • Children prepared for targets emerging from both exits when the location was certain.
  • When target location was uncertain, children prepared for only one possible exit, indicating difficulty with simultaneous preparation for mutually exclusive events.
  • Monkeys did not demonstrate the capacity for simultaneous preparation for mutually exclusive events in this task.

Conclusions:

  • The ability for simultaneous preparation for mutually exclusive future events develops relatively late in human ontogeny.
  • This capacity appears to be absent in the studied monkey species, suggesting a significant evolutionary divergence in anticipatory behavior.
  • Findings contribute to understanding the developmental trajectory and evolutionary basis of future-oriented cognition.

Keywords:
childrenforesightmental time travelmonkeyspreparationuncertainty

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