Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T08:38:06.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What time words teach us about children's acquisition of the temporal reasoning system

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

Katharine A. Tillman*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX78712. ktillman@utexas.eduwww.katharinetillman.com

Abstract

Here I consider the possible role of the temporal updating system in the development of the temporal reasoning system. Using evidence from children's acquisition of time words, I argue that abstract temporal concepts are not built from primitive representations of time. Instead, I propose that language and cultural learning provide the primary sources of the temporal reasoning system.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ames, L. B. (1946) The development of the sense of time in the young child. The Pedagogical Seminary and Journal of Genetic Psychology 68(1):97125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barner, D. (2017) Language, procedures, and the non-perceptual origin of number word meanings. Journal of Child Language, 138.Google ScholarPubMed
Bergen, B. K. & Lau, T. T. C. (2012) Writing direction affects how people map space onto time. Frontiers in Psychology 3:109. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00109.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boroditsky, L. & Gaby, A. (2010) Remembrances of times East: Absolute spatial representations of time in an Australian aboriginal community. Psychological Science 21(11):1635–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brislin, R. W. & Kim, E. S. (2003) Cultural diversity in people's understanding and uses of time. Applied Psychology 52(3):363–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busby, J. & Suddendorf, T. (2005) Recalling yesterday and predicting tomorrow. Cognitive Development 20(3):362–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busby-Grant, J. & Suddendorf, T. (2011) Production of temporal terms by 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 26(1):8795. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2010.05.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, S. (2009) The origin of concepts. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, W. J. & Laycock, F. (1989) Children's analog and digital clock knowledge. Child Development 60(2):357–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harner, L. (1975) Yesterday and tomorrow: Development of early understanding of the terms. Developmental Psychology 11:864865.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hendricks, R. K. & Boroditsky, L. (2017) New space–time metaphors foster new nonlinguistic representations. Topics in cognitive science 9(3):800–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kamii, C. & Russell, K. A. (2012) Elapsed time: why is it so difficult to teach?. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 43(3):296315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shatz, M., Tare, M., Nguyen, S. P. & Young, T. (2010) Acquiring non-object terms: The case for time words. Journal of Cognition and Development 11:1636.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tillman, K. A. & Barner, D. (2015) Learning the language of time: Children's acquisition of duration words. Cognitive Psychology 78:5777.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tillman, K. A., Marghetis, T., Barner, D. & Srinivasan, M. (2017) Today is tomorrow's yesterday: Children's acquisition of deictic time words. Cognitive Psychology 92:87100. doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2016.10.003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, M. & Hudson, J. A. (2018a). Children's understanding of yesterday and tomorrow. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 170:107–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar