Childhood Cognition and Learning Laboratory

Recent News

About

Research Activities

Team Members

Join the Lab Team

Participate

Publications

Partners

Contact the Lab

Recent News

 

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Welcome to the CCLL! Learn more about our research, or sign up to participate in a fun study with your child!

Here are some recent updates from our lab:

  • September 2024 - The CCLL has two new Honours thesis students. A big welcome to Sara Dyyat and Marieta Ibironke Peters! 

  • August 2024 - A massive congratulations to Bronwyn O'Brien for successfully defending her PhD Thesis - Way to go Dr. O'Brien!! We're all so proud of you!

 

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About

 

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The Childhood Cognition and Learning Lab (CCLL) began conducting research in the fall of 2003 under the direction of Dr. Cristina Atance. We are a child psychology lab interested in learning more about how young children think. To explore different aspects of children’s thinking, we typically conduct studies with 3- to 7-year-olds.

Research Activities

 

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Our lab is interested in how young children develop the capacity to “mentally travel” through time. That is, when and how do young children begin to think about the future (e.g., what they’ll do tomorrow), and how is this ability related to their memory of the past? Click here to view an infographic on children's future thinking.

We have a series of ongoing projects that examine a diverse array of topics within this area:
How do we measure young children’s capacity for future thought?

The goal of this work is to develop experimental paradigms to assess whether children can take into account past (or present) information to make adaptive choices for the future. Recent work in this area includes:

Caza, J. S., O’Brien, B. M., Cassidy, K. S., Ziani-Bey, H. A., & Atance, C. M. (2021). Tomorrow will be different: Children’s ability to incorporate an intervening event when thinking about the future. Developmental Psychology, 57, 376–385.

Atance, C. M., Celebi, S. N., Mitchinson, S., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2019). Thinking about the future: Comparing children’s forced-choice versus “generative” responses in the “spoon test.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 181, 1-16.

Caza, J. S., & Atance, C. M. (2019). Children's behavior and spontaneous talk in a future thinking task. Psychological Research, 83, 761-773.

Atance, C. M., Louw, A., & Clayton, N. S. (2015). Thinking ahead about where something is needed: New insights about episodic foresight in preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 129, 98-109.

Understanding changes in mental states

Although developmental psychologists have conducted a great deal of research about children’s understanding of others’ minds (often called “theory of mind”), there is very little research about children’s understanding of how their own minds or “mental states” change over time. In this work, we seek to better understand young children’s understanding that what they like, feel, and know now differed in the past and will differ in the future. Recent work in this area includes:

Kopp, L., Hamwi, L., & Atance, C. M. (2021). Self-projection in early development: Preschoolers’ reasoning about changes in their future and past preferences. Journal of Cognition and Development, 22, 246-266. DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2021.1874954 

Atance, C. M., & Caza, J. S. (2018). “Will I know more in the future than I know now?” Preschoolers’ judgments about changes in general knowledge. Developmental Psychology, 54, 857-865.

Kopp, L. Atance, C. M., & Pearce, S. (2017). Things aren’t as bad as they seem: Preschoolers over-predict the emotional intensity of negative outcomes. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 35, 623-627.

Bélanger, M., Atance, C. M., Varghese, A., Nguyen, V., & Vendetti, C. (2014). What will I like best when I’m all grown up? Preschoolers’ understanding of future preferences. Child Development, 85, 2419-2431.

The effects of psychological distance on children’s reasoning about the future

In this line of work, we’re studying how children’s (and adults’) reasoning about the future differs when they “distance” themselves from the self in the here-and-now. We do so by asking children to make predictions about their own futures, but also the futures of others (e.g., a same-age peer). We’ve also been asking children to “distance” by reasoning about what they’d do in a far-away location. We’re trying to determine whether children’s reasoning about the future differs depending on the perspective (“near” or “distant”) they assume. Recent work in this area includes:

Atance, C.M., Rutt, J.R., Cassidy, Mahy, C.E.V (2021). Young children's future-oriented reasoning for self and other: effects of conflict and perspective. Journal of Experimental Clinical Psychology, 209.

Bauckham, G., Lambert, R., Atance, C. M., Davidson, P. S. R., Taler, V., & Renoult, L. (2019). Predicting our own and others’ future preferences: The role of social distance. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 634-642.

Lee, W. S. C., & Atance, C. M. (2016). The effect of psychological distance on children’s reasoning about future preferences. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0164382. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0164382

Saving

Our lab is also very interested in how children’s capacity to think about the future translates into highly-adaptive behaviours such as saving. In recent work, we’ve been exploring how saving develops and also the kinds of manipulations that lead to increases in children’s saving. Recent work in this area includes:

Dueck, K., Aubin, E., Castro, A., Jerome, E., Kamawar, D., Milyavskaya, M., & Atance, C. (2019). The effect of verbal prompts on children's saving behavior in a novel token-based task. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

Atance, C. M., Metcalf, J. L., & Thiessen, A. (2017). Helping children save: Tell them they can (if they want to). Cognitive Development, 43, 67-79.

Metcalf, J. L., & Atance, C. M. (2011). Do preschoolers save to benefit their future selves? Cognitive Development, 26, 371-382.

Other research areas

Although not as active in the following areas at present, our lab is also interested in young children’s talk about the future, links between future thinking, theory of mind, and executive function, future thinking in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and patience and delay of gratification.

Team Members

 

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Director

  • Atance, Dr. Cristina

    Atance, Dr. Cristina


    Office: 613-562-5800 ext. 4476
    Work E-mail: atance@uOttawa.ca

    Biography: Dr. Cristina Atance is the Director of the Childhood Cognition and Learning Laboratory and is a Full Professor of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. She is also a Co-Director of a new and innovative research lab/space – the University of Ottawa “Living Lab” – at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Dr. Atance completed her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Toronto in 1996 and received her PhD from the University of Waterloo in 2001. She then completed a two-year post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Washington before returning to Canada in 2003 to begin a faculty position at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Atance has broad research interests within the domain of cognitive development/children’s thinking but is especially intrigued by their memory and thought about the future, and their perspective-taking and executive functioning skills. Her research has been funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Government of Ontario. Although Dr. Atance likes to think she knows a lot about how children think, her creative, silly, and downright unpredictable two sons remind her that she does not! When she is not trying to figure them out (or working), she likes to spend time outdoors doing just about anything active.

Graduate students
Honours Students

  • Sara Dyyat

  • Marieta Ibironke Peters

Research Assistants

  • Yazdanyar, Patrice

    patris

    Lab Coordinator
    Office: 613-562-5800 ext. 4475
    Work E-mail: ccll@uottawa.ca

     

  • Wilson, Jacob

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Alumni

Graduate Students, Postdoctoral Fellows, and Research Collaborators

Dr. Lea Kopp (2021)// Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Julian Caza (2019)// Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Joshua Rutt (2019)// Senior Research Analyst, Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., Sudbury, MA, USA

Dr. Wendy Lee (2015)// Research Associate SRDC

Dr. Michèle Mantha (Bélanger) (2015) // Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Jennifer Metcalf (2014) // Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Gladys Barragan-Jason (2014) // Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France

Dr. Laura Hanson (2013) // Clinical Psychologist, Patchwork Child Psychology

Dr. Gema Martin-Ordas (2011) // University of Stirling, UK

Undergraduate Honours, NSERC-USRA, and UROP Students

2022: Mohamed Ebeid, Zoë Brown, Sahil Kumar Thorul

2021: Olivia Gardam, Maja Greenspon, Danielle Ovtsyn, Florence Sirois

2020: Jane Archibald, Inès Fiedler, Taissa Fuke, Maja Greenspon

2019: Alex Castro, Ashley McIntyre, Lojain Hamwi

2018: Hana Ziani-Bey, Katie Cassidy

2017: Samantha Austin, Alexa Burak, Alexandra Noble, Breanna Bell-Lee

2015: Bre Harper, Caitlin Atkinson, Laura Bouchard 

2014: Matthew Berry, Stephanie Williams

2013: Julian Caza

2012: Victoria Nguyen 

2011: Andrea Thiessen 

2010: Sarah Paluck 

2009: Anisha Varghese

2007: Cheryl Walker, Elizabeth Quon

2006: Emily Cartledge, Laura Hanson, Shannon Lawless

2005: Anneke Zuijdwijk, Jessica Simon, Shannon Hodgson 

2004: Jesse Arnup, Jennifer Metcalf

Join the Lab Team

 

The Childhood Cognition and Learning Laboratory welcomes people from all backgrounds, races, faiths, genders, body abilities, and sexual orientations and conditions. We encourage diversity and inclusion for all positions in the lab. We are also determined to foster a safe and accepting environment for all those who are interested in research, and who are seeking to learn, gain experience, and have fun!
Undergraduate Students
The Childhood Cognition and Learning Lab is currently not accepting volunteers.
 
If you are interested in completing an Honours Thesis, a Directed Research course for the winter 2025 semester, or an NSERC-USRA  in the summer of 2025, please email Dr. Atance at atance@uOttawa.ca along with a copy of your most up-to-date CV, unofficial transcript, and a brief paragraph outlining your research interests.
Graduate students

Dr. Atance will be accepting applications from students who are interested in joining her lab in the 2025-2026 academic year. Detailed information regarding the graduate program is available on the School of Psychology website and the uOttawa Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website . If you are interested in applying, please contact Dr. Atance at atance@uOttawa.ca.

Participate

 

Is your child between 3 and 8 years old? We need your help! 

Are you interested in participating in one of our activities or adding your child to our list of potential participants? Please click on the button below to register and a member of our lab will contact you soon.

Participating online

We have adapted some of our studies so that you and your child can participate online from a distance. Online studies consist of activities and games that children play with our researchers using a computer, tablet, or mobile device. They typically take about 20-30 minutes to complete. For your time, your child will receive a 10$ electronic gift card to a bookstore of their choice. If you are interested in participating in an online study, please fill out the form, and someone from the lab will contact you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you may continue to check this page for updates as our online studies will be listed here as they become available.

Current online studies

We currently do not have any online activities at the moment. Stay tuned as we may have one coming soon!

Current in-person studies

Grocery Store Activity

Previous research has shown that when presented with options, 4-year-olds are able to select an item that will help them in the future. However, there is little research on how children prepare for the future, without being told to. Some evidence suggests that this spontaneous preparation doesn’t begin until middle childhood (around 7 years old). We’re interested in seeing if children (aged 4 to 6) will bring a useful item from one room to another to prepare for a future activity in person. The study involves having you and your child come to the University of Ottawa campus where your child will complete some fun activities. The whole experience should last approximately one hour to complete. Free parking is provided, and your child will get the choice of a prize at the end of the study. 

Other participation opportunities

Participate at the Living Lab

Dr. Atance is one of the three founders of the University of Ottawa’s Living Lab where children can take part in research activities during a visit to the Canada Science and Technology Museum. Come visit us at the museum to discover how you can take part in one of our fun activities!

Parent testimonials

Here's what some of our participants have told us about their visit to the lab:

  • "I found the study really interesting and fun, for my daughter and myself."
  • "Thank you for the opportunity to participate :). Great program; I find your research most interesting and look forward to participating again."
  • "We had a great time. The staff is friendly and professional. We're happy to help with your research."

FAQs for Participants

What will an online study involve?

Your child’s participation in an online study will involve a 20-30 minute session with our researchers using a computer, tablet, or mobile device. Our goal continues to be that the child’s experience is fun and rewarding, so we begin the session by providing an introduction and explanation of the study’s components, to attempt to ensure that you and your child feel comfortable. It is suggested that you stay with your child for the study’s entirety in case any technical issues or questions arise. All of our studies are non-evaluative and the games are meant to be fun for your child. After your child is finished participating in the online study, you will have the opportunity to ask the researcher any questions you may have. Please note that your child’s individual performance is not evaluated. This is because we are interested in children’s performance as a group. For instance, we’re interested in how 3-year-olds differ from 4-year-olds in their ability to plan for the future. After we complete the studies, we present them at developmental psychology conferences and publish them in various academic journals. We also create a newsletter to keep parents updated on the progress of our studies.

Can you describe a typical online study?

A study will typically involve slides with images and text which the researcher presents to your child. The researcher will describe various situations using the slides and ask your child for a response. For example, the researcher may present your child with a photograph of a beach and then ask him/her to imagine that he/she is planning a trip to the beach. Then the researcher will ask your child what he/she would like to bring on this trip and why.

What will a visit to the CCLL involve?

Your child’s participation in a study will involve a one-time visit of approximately 45 minutes to an hour to our research laboratory at the University of Ottawa. When you arrive, you will be greeted in our reception room by one of our researchers who will give you more information about the study. The researcher will take the opportunity to play with your child in the play area. Our goal is that your child’s visit be a fun and rewarding experience, so we begin by making your child feel comfortable in these new surroundings.

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The researcher will then invite your child to play some games in one of our testing rooms. You may choose to either watch your child on a closed circuit television monitor in our observation area, or, if you prefer, you are welcome to stay in the testing room with your child. All of our studies are non-evaluative and the games are meant to be fun for your child. After your child is finished playing these games, you will have the opportunity to ask the researcher any questions you may have.

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Please note that your child’s individual performance is not evaluated. This is because we are interested in children’s performance as a group. For instance, we’re interested in how 3-year-olds differ from 4-year-olds in their ability to plan for the future. After we complete the studies, we present them at developmental psychology conferences and publish them in various academic journals. We also create a newsletter to keep parents updated on the progress of our studies.

To see what a typical visit for a family to the CCLL and our partner child development labs looks like from start to finish, we invite you to watch our YouTube testimonial video that captures all the fun!

Can you describe a typical study?

Our studies typically involve playing with various props, such as puppets, stickers, and picture books. The researcher starts by describing a situation with the assistance of the props and then asks your child for a response. For example, the researcher may show your child a photograph of a beach and then ask them to imagine that they are planning a trip to the beach. Then the researcher will ask your child what they would like to bring on this trip and why.

testing

 

How do I set up an appointment?

If you are interested in participating in a study, or if you would simply like to obtain more information, please call us at 613-562-5800 ext. 4475 or email us at ccll@uottawa.ca. We always have several ongoing research projects with children of different ages. Although we may not have an immediate opportunity for you and your child to participate, you can be sure that we will contact you as soon as we do! After your first visit, you can let us know whether you would be interested in participating again, as many of our parents and children often wish to participate more than once!

Do you have ethics approval for your research?

All of our studies have been reviewed and approved by the Research Ethics Board at the University of Ottawa. Each child’s performance is considered confidential. Each session is videotaped to help us later observe your child’s responses during the session in more detail. No one from outside of our research group is given permission to view these videos.

Media

2021

National Geographic (2021) 

Dr. Atance shares how parents can help their kids achieve their goals. 

Ottawa Parenting Times (2021) 

Dr. Atance speaks about the importance of routines and children's transition back to school. 

Research Perspectives

What is mental time travel and what inspired Dr. Atance to study future thinking in children?

2020

uOttawa Gazette (2020)

Dr. Atance weighs in on how parents working from home during COVID-19 can engage with their children in a variety of fun ways to foster their development.

Fatherly.com Article (2020)

Dr. Atance is featured in an article that aims to help parents by assembling advice from child development experts on the challenges of working from home as a parent during COVID-19.

2013

World of Ideas (2013)

Dr. Atance describes the importance of episodic future thinking in young children.

2006

Psychology Today Article (2006)

Dr. Atance presents the results of her research about how children (and adults!) are rooted in the here and now. Suggestions for how to help children learn to think ahead are offered at the end!

Infographics

Infographics are engaging visuals that simplify and summarize complex information, often using images and graphs. Researchers use infographics to make their scientific research more accessible for everyone. The CCLL is invested in sharing our results with families and the greater community! Therefore, we have created a selection of infographics based on our published work. 

 

For example, the work that we do at the CCLL focuses on how children think and reason about the future. Here is an infographic explaining children's ability to report on their past preferences and predict their future preferences. It is adapted from this published paper.

 

Below, you will find more infographics summarizing some of our latest studies, their key findings, and main takeaways. 

Young children's future-oriented reasoning for self and other: Effects of conflict and perspective

Young Children's Saving and their Episodic Future Thinking

Moving Beyond "Spoon" Tasks: When Do Children Autocue their Episodic Future Thought?

Effects of Cognitive and Environmental Factors on Children's Saving

How Do Children Represent Near Versus Distant Future Events?

Publications

 

Journal Articles
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2024

O’Brien, B., Ebeid, M., & Atance, C. M. (2024). "Who Feels Happier Right Now?: the impact of temporal distance on children’s judgements of emotional intensity. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 

Ayson, G. & Atance, C. M. (2024). Children’s mental time travel into the future: a functional perspective. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 

Dueck, K., Castro, A. W., Kamawar, D., Milyavskaya, M., Gallitto, E., & Atance, C. M. (2024). The effects of cognitive and environmental factors on children’s early saving. Cognitive Development. 

O’Brien, B., Rodriguez, M., Gallitto, E., & Atance, C. M. (2024). Tomorrow versus a year from now : Do children represent the near and distant future differently? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 241.  

2023

Tanguay, A. F. N., Gardam, O., Archibald, J., Ayson, G., & Atance, C. M. (2023).  Using an episodic specificity induction to improve children’s future thinking. Frontiers in Psychology: Section, Cognition, 14. 

Atance, C. M., Ayson, G., & Martin-Ordas, G. (2023). Moving beyond “Spoon” tasks: When do children autocue their episodic future thought? WIREs Cognitive Science. 

Jerome, E., Kamawar, D., Milyavskaya, M., & Atance, C. (2023). Preschoolers’ saving: The role of budgeting and psychological distance on a novel token savings task. Cognitive Development. 

Tsui, A. S. M., & Atance, C. M. (2023). Young children’s saving and their episodic future thinking. Journal of Cognition and Development, 24, 438-457.  

Mazachowsky,T.R., Atance, C. M., Rutt, J. L., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2023). Verbal explanations and item choices as joint indices of children’s episodic foresight. Journal of Cognition and Development, 24 (1), 17-36. 

2022

Burns, P., O'Connor, P. A., Atance, C., & McCormack, T. (2022). The effects of cueing episodic future thinking on delay discounting children, adolescents, and adults. Cognition, 218.

2021

Atance, C. M., Rutt, J. R., Cassidy, K., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2021). Young children’s future-oriented reasoning for self and other: effects of conflict and perspective. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 209. [infographic]

Burns, P., McCormack, T., O’Connor, P., Fitzpatrick, A., Atance, C. M. (2021). The effect of episodic future thinking on young children's future-oriented decision making. Developmental Psychology, 57, 976-990. 

Martin-Ordas, G., & Atance, C. M. (2021). What will you want tomorrow? Children—but not adults- mis-predict another person’s future desires. PLoS ONE, 16(11). 

Kopp, L., Hamwi, L., & Atance, C. M. (2021). Self-projection in early development: Preschoolers’ reasoning about changes in their future and past preferences. Journal of Cognition and Development, 22, 246-266. [infographic]

Burns, P., O’Connor, P. A., Atance, C., & McCormack, T. (2021). More later: Delay of gratification and thought about the future in children. Child Development, 92, 1554-1573. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13521

Caza, J. S., O’Brien, B. M., Cassidy, K. S., Ziani-Bey, H. A., & Atance, C. M. (2021). Tomorrow will be different: Children’s ability to incorporate an intervening event when thinking about the future. Developmental Psychology, 57, 376–385.

2020

Mazachowsky, T. R., Atance, C. M., Mitchinson, S., Mahy, C. E. V. (2020). “What should you bring with you to this place?”: Examining children’s episodic foresight using open-ended questions. The Journal of Genetic Psychology (Special issue on temporal cognition), 181, 223-236.

Tanguay, A. N., Palombo, D. J., Atance, C. M., Renoult, L., & Davidson, P. S. R. (2020). Scrutinizing the grey areas of declarative memory: Do the self-reference and temporal orientation of a trait knowledge task modulate the Late Positive Component (LPC)? (Special issue in honor of Endel Tulving: Memory, consciousness, and beyond). Neuropsychologia, 142, 107444.

O’Brien, B., Rutt, J. L., & Atance, C. M. (2020). Are all distances created equal? Insights from developmental psychology (Commentary on Gilead, Trope, & Liberman). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 43, E140.

Mahy, C. E. V., Moses, L., O'Brien, B., Castro, A., Kopp, L., & Atance, C. M. (2020). The roles of perspective and language in children’s ability to delay gratification. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 192, 104767.

Burns, P., Fay, O., McCafferty, M-F, McKeever, V., Atance, C., & McCormack, T. (2020). Examining children’s ability to delay reward: Is the delay discounting task a suitable measure? Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 33, 208-219.

2019

Goulding, B. W., Atance, C. M., & Friedman, O. (2019). An ownership-advantage in preschoolers’ future-oriented thinking. Developmental Psychology, 55, 1702–1708.

Atance, C. M., Celebi, S. N., Mitchinson, S., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2019). Thinking about the future: comparing children’s forced-choice versus “generative” responses in the “spoon test.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 181, 1-16.

Barragan-Jason, G., Atance, C., Stieglitz, J, Hopfensitz, A., & Cauchoix, M. (2019). Commentary: Revisiting the marshmallow test: a conceptual replication investigating links between early delay of gratification and later outcomes. Frontiers in Psychology, section Developmental Psychology. [PDF]

Martin-Ordas, G., & Atance, C. M. (2019). Adults’ performance in an episodic-like memory task: the role of experience. Frontiers in Psychology, section Cognition. [PDF]

Bauckham, G., Lambert, R., Atance, C. M., Davidson, P. S. R., Taler, V., & Renoult, L. (2019). Predicting our own and others’ future preferences: The role of social distance. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 634-642. 

Caza, J. S., & Atance, C. M. (2019). Children's behavior and spontaneous talk in a future thinking task. Psychological Research, 83, 761-773.

2018

Cauchoix, M., Chow, P. K. Y., van Horik, J. O., Atance, C. M., Barbeau, E. J., Barragan-Jason, G., … Morand-Ferron, J. (2018). The repeatability of cognitive performance: a meta-analysis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 373. [PDF]

Barragan-Jason, G., Atance, C. M., Kopp, L., & Hopfensitz, A. (2018). Two facets of patience in young children: Waiting with and without an explicit reward. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 171, 14-30.

2017

Kopp, L., Atance, C. M., & Pearce, S. (2017). “Things aren’t so bad!”: Preschoolers over-predict the emotional intensity of negative outcomes. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 35, 623-627.

Atance, C. M., & Caza, J. S. (2017). “Will I know more in the future than I know now?” Preschoolers’ judgments about changes in general knowledge. Developmental Psychology, 54, 857-865.

Mahy, C. E. V., Bernstein, D. M., Gerrard, L. D., & Atance, C. M. (2017). Testing the validity of a continuous false belief task in three to seven year old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 160, 50-66.

Martin-Ordas, G, Atance, C. M., & Caza, J. S. (2017). Did the popsicle melt? Preschoolers’ performance in an episodic-like memory task. Memory, 25, 1260-1271. 

Barragan-Jason, G., & Atance, C. M. (2017). A New Approach to Measuring Patience in Preschoolers. Developmental Psychobiology, 59, 738-748. 

Atance, C. M., Metcalf, J. L., & Thiessen, A. (2017). Helping Children Save: Tell Them They Can (if They Want to). Cognitive Development, 43, 67-79.

2016

Lee, W. S. C., & Atance, C. M. (2016). The effect of psychological distance on children's reasoning about future preferences. PLoS ONE 11(10): e0164382. [PDF]

Caza, J. S., Atance, C. M., & Bernstein, D. M. (2016). Older (but not younger) preschoolers understand that knowledge differs between people and across time. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 34, 313-324.

Renoult, L., Kopp, L., Davidson, P. S. R., Taler, V., & Atance, C. M. (2016). You'll change more than I will: Adults' predictions about their own and others' future preferences. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69, 299-309.

2015

Atance, C. M. (2015). Young children's thinking about the future. Child Development Perspectives, 9, 178-182.

Atance, C. M., Louw, A., & Clayton, N. S. (2015). Thinking ahead about where something is needed: New insights about episodic foresight in preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 129, 98-109. 

Thompson, E. L., Plowright, C. M. S., Atance, C. M., & Caza, J. S. (2015). Reasoning and relatedness. Evolution and Human Behavior, 36, 38–43. 

2014

Atance, C. M., Metcalf, J. L., Martin-Ordas, G., & Walker, C. L. (2014). Young children’s causal explanations are biased by post-action associative information. Developmental Psychology, 50, 2675–2685. 

Hanson, L. K., Atance, C. M., & Paluck, S. W. (2014). Is thinking about the future related to theory of mind and executive function? Not in preschoolers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 128, 120-137. 

Bélanger, M. J., Atance, C. M., Varghese, A. L., Nguyen, V., & Vendetti, C. (2014). What will I like best when I’m all grown up? Preschoolers’ understanding of future preferences. Child Development, 85, 2419-2431. 

Martin-Ordas, G., Atance, C. M., & Caza, J. S. (2014). How do episodic and semantic memory contribute to episodic foresight in young children? Frontiers in Psychology, 5(732), 1-11 . [PDF] 

Atance, C. M., & Sommerville, J. A. (2014). Assessing the role of memory in preschoolers’ performance on episodic foresight tasks. Memory, 22, 118-128. 

Hanson, L. K., & Atance, C. M. (2014). Episodic foresight in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, 674-684. 

Martin-Ordas, G., Atance, C. M., & Call, J. (2014). Remembering in tool-use tasks in children and apes: The role of the information at encoding. Memory, 22, 129-144 . 

2012

Martin-Ordas, G., Atance, C. M., & Louw, A. (2012). The role of episodic and semantic memory in episodic foresight. Learning and Motivation, 43, 209-219. 

Atance, C. M., Metcalf J. L., & Zuijdwijk, A. M. (2012). Preschoolers’ explanations of actions based on past realities and false beliefs. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1-14. 

2011

Davies, J., Atance, C. M., & Martin-Ordas, G. (2011). A framework and open questions on imagination in adults and children. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 31, 143-157. 

Metcalf, J. L., & Atance, C. M. (2011). Do preschoolers save to benefit their future selves? Cognitive Development, 26, 371-382. 

McCormack, T., & Atance, C. M. (2011). Planning in young children: A review and synthesis. Developmental Review, 31, 1-31. 

2010

Atance, C. M., Bernstein, D. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2010). False belief understanding: It’s not just what children say, but how long it takes them to say it. Cognition, 116, 297-301. 

Atance, C. M., Bélanger, M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2010). Preschoolers’ understanding of others’ desires: fulfilling mine enhances my understanding of yours. Developmental Psychology, 46, 1505-1513. 

Quon, E., & Atance, C. M. (2010). A comparison of preschoolers’ memory, knowledge, and anticipation of events. Journal of Cognition and Development, 11, 37-60. 

2009

Atance, C. M., & Jackson, L. K. (2009). The development and coherence of future-oriented behaviors during the preschool years. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 379-391. 

2008

Jackson, L. K., & Atance, C. M. (2008). Future thinking in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A pilot study. Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 14, 40-45.

Atance, C. M. (2008). Future thinking in young children. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 295-298.

2007

Atance, C. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2007). How developmental science contributes to theories of future thinking. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30, 314-315. 

Bernstein, D. M., Atance, C. M., Meltzoff, A. N., & Loftus, G. R. (2007). Hindsight bias and developing theories of mind. Child Development, 78, 1374-1394.

2006

Atance, C. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2006). Preschoolers’ current desires warp their choices for the future. Psychological Science, 17, 583-587. 

Before 2005

Atance, C. M., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2005). My future self: Young children’s ability to anticipate and explain future states. Cognitive Development, 20, 341-361. 

Atance, C. M., & O’Neill, D. K. (2005). The emergence of episodic future thinking in humans. Learning & Motivation, 36, 126-144. 

Atance, C. M., & O’Neill, D. K. (2005). Preschoolers’ talk about future situations. First Language, 25, 5-18.

Atance, C. M., & O’Neill, D. K. (2004). Acting and planning on the basis of a false belief: Its effects on 3-year-old children’s reasoning about their own false beliefs. Developmental Psychology, 40, 953-964. 

Bernstein, D. M., Atance, C., Loftus, G. R., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2004). We saw it all along: Visual hindsight bias in children and adults. Psychological Science, 15, 264-267.

Atance, C. M., & O’Neill, D. K. (2001). Episodic future thinking. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 533-539. 

O’Neill, D. K., & Atance, C. M. (2000). “Maybe my Daddy give me a big piano:” The development of children’s use of modals to express uncertainty. First Language, 20, 29-52.

Coambs, R. B., Jarry, J. L., Santhiapillai, A. C., Abrahamsohn, R. V. & Atance, C. M. (1996). The SISAP: A new screening instrument for identifying potential opioid abusers in the management of chronic nonmalignant pain within general medical practice. Pain Research and Management, 1, 155-162. [PDF]

Book Chapters
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Atance, C. M. (2018). Future-thinking in young children: how do we measure it and how can we optimize it? In G. Oettingen, A. Timur Sevincer, & P. M. Gollwitzer (Eds.), The psychology of thinking about the future (pp. 71-88). New York: The Guilford Press.

Atance, C. M., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2016). Episodic future thinking in children: Methodological and theoretical approaches. In K. Michaelian, S. B. Klein, & K. K. Szpunar (Eds.), Seeing the future: theoretical perspectives on future-oriented mental time travel (pp. 367-385). Oxford University Press.

Atance, C. M., & Martin-Ordas, G. (2014). Projecting the self into the future. In P. J. Bauer & R. Fivush (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell Handbook on the Development of Children’s Memory (pp. 645-664). Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Atance, C.M., & Metcalf, J. L. (2013). Future thinking in young children. In M. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Development of Imagination (pp. 305-324). New York: Oxford University Press.

Atance, C. M., & Jackson, L. K. (2011). Making Predictions: A Developmental Perspective. In M. Bar (Ed.), Predictions in the Brain: Using Our Past to Generate a Future (pp. 311-324). New York: Oxford University Press Inc.

Atance, C. M. (2008). From the past into the future: The developmental origins and trajectory of episodic future thinking. In E. Dere, A. Eason, L. Nadel, & J. P. Huston (Eds.), Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience: Handbook of Episodic Memory Research (pp. 99-114). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Press.

Atance, C. M., & O’Neill, D. K. (2001). Planning in 3-year-olds: A reflection of the future self? In C. Moore & K. Lemmon (Eds.), The self in time: Developmental perspectives (pp. 121-140). Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Presentations (last 5 years)
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Ayson, G., Archibald, A., & Atance, C.M. (2024) “I need a spoon!” A new measure of children’s spontaneous episodic future thinking. Paper presented at the Jean Piaget Society. Toronto, Canada. 

Evsen, S., & Atance, C. M. (2024, May 31-June 2). Talking About the Future: Contents and Functions of Preschoolers’ Future Talk in Naturalistic Settings [Poster presentation]. 53rd Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Toronto, Canada.   

Rabideau, T., Brien, C., Zamuner, T., Fennell, C., & Atance, C. (2024). Evaluating an infant and child language development knowledge mobilization activity in a museum-based Living Lab. Poster presented at the International Congress of Infant Studies, Glasgow, Scotland. 

Rossiter, S., Ayson, G., Mahy, C., & Atance, C.M. (2024, May). Does Pretending to be Another Person Optimize Young Children’s Future-Oriented Reasoning? Individual paper presentation presented in-person at the 2024 Jean Piaget Society Annual Meeting in Toronto, Ontario.

Thorul, S. K., Rossiter, S., & Atance, C. M. (2023). Investigating preschoolers’ ability to appreciate the everchanging nature of mental states. Poster presented at the Interdisciplinary Conference in Psychology, Ottawa, Canada. 

Ebeid, M., Archibald, J., Kreisman, F., O’Brien, B., & Atance, C. M. (2023). Who feels sadder right now?: The impact of temporal distance on children’s judgements of emotional intensity. Poster presented at the Interdisciplinary Conference in Psychology, Ottawa, Canada. 

Ayson, G., & Atance, C. M. (2023). A naturalistic investigation of children’s future-oriented behavior. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Ayson, G., Archibald, J, & Atance, C. M. (2023). A new test of “self-directed” episodic future thinking in children. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

O’Brien, B., & Atance, C. M. (2023). Who feels happier right now?: The impact of temporal distance on children’s judgements of emotional intensity. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, Utah.  

Rossiter, S., Ayson, G., Gallitto, E., Mahy, C, & Atance, C. M. (2023). Does shifting perspective optimize young children’s future-oriented decision-making? Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Dueck, K., Castro, A., Kamawar, D., Milyavskaya, M., & Atance, C. M. (2021). Factors associated with saving in early childhood. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, Virtual Conference.

Ayson, G., Kopp, L., Hamwi, L., Atance, C. M. (2021). Theory of mind and inhibitory control predict preschoolers’ perspective shifts into the future, but not the past. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Virtual Conference.

Hamwi, L., Kopp, L., Ovtsyn, D., & Atance, C. M. (2021). Links between preschoolers’ reasoning about changes in their future and past preferences. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Virtual Conference.

O’Brien, B., Greenspon, M., Hamwi, L., Castro, A. W., & Atance, C. M. (2021). Do temporal distance and event frequency influence children’s future event representations? Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Virtual Conference.

Hunsberger, K., Heck, I., Borgers, C., Atance, C. M., & Kushnir, T. (2021). The dichotomy of distance: Effects of social context on the implications of psychological distance. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Virtual Conference.

Ayson, G., & Atance, C. M. (2019). Future thinking and memory: Addressing a key criticism of the spoon task. Poster presented at the Biennial Conference of the Cognitive Development Society, Louisville, Kentucky.

Rutt, J., Cassidy, K., Mahy, C. E. V., & Atance, C. M. (2019). How do conflict and perspective affect children’s future thinking? Poster presented at the Biennial Conference of the Cognitive Development Society, Louisville, Kentucky.

O’Brien, B., Castro, A., Hamwi, L., & Atance, C. M. (2019). Are children more optimistic about distant versus near future events? Poster presented at the Biennial Conference of the Cognitive Development Society, Louisville, Kentucky.

Tanguay, A., Rutt, J., Renoult, L., & Atance, C. M. (2019). The role of psychological distance in predicting future preferences. Poster presented at the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting, Montréal, Canada.

Dueck, K., Castro, A., Kamawar, D., Milyavskaya, M., & Atance, C. (2019). Children’s saving in a token task and its relation to household income and parental education. Poster presented at the Canadian Psychological Association’s Annual Meeting, Halifax, Canada.

Atance, C., Nur Celebi S., Mitchinson, S., & Mahy, C. (2019). Assessing “generative” forms of future thought and their underlying mechanisms in young children. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

Zamuner, T., Atance, C., & Fennell, C. (2019). Big Data from One Location: Museum-Based Developmental Research. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

Dueck, K., Aubin, E., Castro, A., Jerome, E., Kamawar, D., Milyavskaya, M., & Atance, C. (2019).The effect of verbal prompts on children's saving behavior in a novel token-based task. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

Goulding, B., Atance, C., & Friedman, O. (2019). Young children show an ownership advantage in their future-thinking. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA. 

Kopp, L., Hamwi, L., Noble, A., & Atance, C. (2019). Preschoolers’ reasoning about changes in their own past preferences. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

Mazachowsky, T., Atance, C., Mitchinson, S., & Mahy, C. (2019). Examining children’s episodic foresight on the picture-book task using open-ended and forced-choice questions. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

Rutt, J., O’Brien, B., & Atance, C. (2019). Spatial distance and reasoning about the future. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.   

Cassidy, K., Ziani-Bey, H., Caza, J., & Atance, C. (2019). Does executive function predict future thinking when present and future conflict? Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

Burns, P., McCormack, T., O’Connor, P., & Atance, C. (2019). Are we there yet? Diminishing sensitivity to future time horizons predicts children’s discounting of delayed rewards. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, USA.

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Contact the Lab

 

 

School of Psychology
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Ottawa
136 Jean-Jacques Lussier
Vanier Hall, Room 6006
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 6N5
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Tel.: 613-562-5800 ext. 4475

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Directions to the Lab

We are located at the University of Ottawa in the Vanier building. Our parking spot is located in Lot K. When booking an appointment, we will send you detailed directions.

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