Examining temporal orientation without narrative construction in young and older adults

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience of Aging
• Human Development

Background:

• Older adults often imagine future events with less detail than young adults.
• This difference may stem from age-related changes in temporal orientation or narrative construction abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-related differences in temporal construal.
• To determine if older adults exhibit a similar shift in thinking from near to distant future events as young adults.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments involving young and older adults.
• Participants completed measures of personal agency and self-efficacy while imagining near-future vs. distant-future events.
• Tasks focused on temporal orientation, not narrative construction.

Main Results:

• Older adults, similar to young adults, rated personal agency and self-efficacy higher for distant future events compared to near future events.
• This indicates a preserved temporal construal effect in older adults.

Conclusions:

• The shift from concrete to abstract thinking for near vs. distant future events is present in older adults.
• This temporal construal effect persists despite age-related reductions in episodic future imagining.