Date of Award
Spring 5-2022
Document Type
Capstone
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Department/Program
Forensic Psychology
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Kelly McWilliams
Second Reader
Ella Merriwether
Third Advisor
Evan Mandery
Abstract
This study builds on McWilliams (et al., 2019) by analyzing temporal bias among children when making relative temporal judgments using recurring landmarks (e.g., birthday, holidays). Previous research has demonstrated that children display a prospective bias when making these judgments, meaning they tend to date things based on the future occurrence of the landmark (E.g, “it’s ten months until my birthday”) (McWilliams et al., 2019). Adults, by contrast, make relative judgments with landmarks based on the most proximate occurrence of the landmark. In other words, they do not prefer the future or the past (Merriwether et al., under review). Additionally, recent research suggests that, in legal settings, testimony that is consistent with the prospective bias is seen as less credible than when it follows adult patterns of temporal understanding. The present study aims to expand on this line of research by examining children’s open-ended explanations to these questions, in an effort to obtain a better understanding of how children think about relative judgments.
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Tige M., "How Prospective Bias Shapes Children’s Responses to Temporal Location Questions" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/220