Preschoolers' Future-Oriented Cognition: Developing the Ability to Save

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The ability to consider one's future needs and wants (i.e., future-oriented thinking) is an important cognitive skill: failing to think ahead often has negative consequences. Researchers have investigated the development of a number of future-oriented cognitions, including the ability to set aside a limited resource from current consumption for future consumption (saving; Metcalf & Atance, 2011), to perform an intended action in the future (prospective memory; Mahy et al., 2016), and to consider future steps when problem solving (planning; Atance & Meltzoff, 2006). We see evidence for the value of these skills across the lifespan, beginning in childhood, as people regularly experience situations in which not thinking about their future selves leads to disappointment or distress (e.g., not saving some chocolate for the next day, not saving enough time to complete an assignment). Later in life, the impact of failing to think ahead is often much more significant, such as when sufficient funds are not saved for retirement.    We know from recent reports that many Canadians have not sufficiently considered their future selves. For example, adult saving rates in Canada are declining (Pasquali & Aridas, 2013), and among Canadian adults aged 50 and older, nearly half report having saved less than a quarter of what is needed to retire (Chevreau, 2016). We know from Ashby et al. (2011) that saving in adolescence is predictive of saving in adulthood, so the better we understand and can support early saving ability, the better prepared Canadian children will be as they become adolescents, and then adults.    Researchers have only very recently turned their attention to developing measures that index young children's ability to save. Thus, we know quite little about the early development of this important skill. My long-term goal is to develop a model of children's ability to save, situated within the broader context of future-oriented thinking. In developing this model, my short-term goals are to: (1) expand our knowledge of young children's emerging ability to save and determine cognitive skills which contribute to its development; (2) examine ways in which to improve young children's ability to save; and (3) determine the interrelations between the development of saving and other future oriented skills (specifically, prospective memory and planning) in young children. Together, the proposed experiments will enable me to make significant advancement in the development of a model of children's emerging savings ability, and will have implications for how to best support its development.