Two studies explored children's understanding of how the presence of conflicting mental states in a single mind can lead people to act so as to subvert their own desires. Study 1 analyzed explanations by children (4--7 years) and adults of behaviors arising from this sort of 'Ulysses conflict' and compared them with their understanding of conflicting desires in different minds, as well as with changes of mind within an individual across time. The data revealed that only the adults were able to adequately explain the Ulysses conflict. Study 2 asked children (4--7 years) and adults to choose among three explicitly presented competing explanations for self-subverting behaviors. The results suggest that an understanding of the influence of conflicting mental states on behaviors does not occur until at least 7 years of age.

This study investigated the development of intuitions about which properties are associated with the brain and which are associated with the body. A sample of 60 children aged 6, 8, and 10 years, as well a sample of 20 adults, were told about a brain transplant between two individuals and were asked about where certain properties resided after the transplant. Adults and older children construed the characteristics associated with fine-motor behaviour, culpability, social contract and best friendships as transferring with the brain. Characteristics associated with gross-motor behaviour, physical/biological properties, ownership and familial relationships were more likely to be seen as remaining with the body. Domain-based explanations for this pattern of results are discussed.

The concepts of the memory and attentional models were examined in children's and adults' time perception in a long duration. One hundred twenty-one children in preschool through Grade 2 and 29 adults for Study 1 and 93 second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade students and 40 adults for Study 2 judged durations of tasks that varied in interest levels and cognitive demands. In Study 1, children overestimated but adults underestimated the movie that they found to be interesting. However, in Study 2, both children and adults consistently overestimated the duration of puzzles they found to be interesting. In a long duration, the findings were more in line with the memory model than with the attention model. A qualitative change also emerged in middle childhood in the way children kept track of time; this difference may influence the developing perception of long duration in children's representation. Implications of the findings are further discussed in examining the perception of long duration.

Time is closely linked to people's representation of spatial experience. Previous research showed that adults primed with positive affect judged that they were approaching the event (ego‐moving), whereas those primed with negative affect reported that the event was approaching them (event‐moving). The present research investigated the developmental sensitivity towards psycho‐spatial understanding by examining the role of positive and negative affect on children's perception of time. In Study 1, when tested in a within‐subjects design, 5‐, 7‐, and 9‐year‐olds as well as adults made ego‐moving judgments in response to an object of the positive event that was to happen in 2 days. However, by 9 years, children made adult‐like event‐moving responses to an object that stood for the negative affect. Five‐year‐olds continued to make ego‐moving judgments in the negative valence condition, whereas 7‐year‐olds' responses were in transition. Study 2 replicated the full developmental pattern found in Study 1, even when the positive and negative affect events were towards the identical object in the between‐subjects design and the time span was shortened to a few minutes. Implications of the affective spatiotemporal perception of time were further discussed in relation to the sense of agency. Highlights We uncover the pattern of developmental sensitivity towards the psycho‐spatial embodiment of time, in relation to a positive or negative event. Vignettes were used to ascertain participant's psycho‐spatial view of time in relation to valence; 9‐year‐olds had an adult‐like understanding. Teaching children to use different psycho‐spatial agentic perspectives has the potential to help children at risk of anxiety and depression.

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