Preschoolers’ episodic future thinking: Relation to memory performance and parental reminiscing.

This study examined whether preschoolers’ (Mage = 52.12 months) episodic memory and their parents’ reminiscing style were related to their episodic future thinking (EFT) abilities. To this end, 50 French-speaking parent–child dyads were recruited. Children completed an EFT task (requiring the description of activities they would do the next day) and memory tasks assessing the accuracy of their memories about previously experienced standardized events and their ability to memorize new associations of factual and contextual information. Parental reminiscing style was analyzed through parent–child discussions of a prior event (an aquarium visit). The results showed that preschoolers’ EFT was related to both their memory performance on the task assessing their ability to memorize new information and a specific component of parental reminiscing style (i.e., repetitive parental behaviors that introduce regularities into the conversation). These findings are a first step toward a better understanding of how parental behaviors and cognitive processes are involved in the acquisition of EFT.