Developmental changes in the understanding of temporal sequence

In 3 experiments, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds' ability to sequence events was examined. We hypothesized that children initially construct temporal sequences by relying on the organization of their world knowledge instead of inferring logical relations among actions. In the first experiment, children generated picture sequences of familiar and unfamiliar events in forward and backward order without having seen the pictures in their correct sequence. In the second experiment, children reconstructed previously seen sequences, and in the third experiment, children were shown forward and backward sequences and reconstructed them in the opposite direction. Across experiments, the same pattern of performance was found; familiar events in forward order were the easiest to sequence, then unfamiliar events in forward order, familiar events in backward order, and finally unfamiliar events in backward order. These results are discussed along with other findings suggesting a similar pattern of performance across a wide developmental age span.