The ages of zone of proximal development for retrospective time assessment and anticipation of time event

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the ability of children aged 5-14 years old (preschoolers, primary schoolers, and preteens) to assess and anticipate time intervals. 287 Russian children aged 5-14 years old and 26 adults of control group participated in our study. The neuropsychological assessment, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and a battery of time-related tests were applied. All groups of children overestimated the events duration, although the accuracy of the second estimations increased among the participants aged 6-8 years after a prompt was offered. A zone of proximal development for time anticipation task was detected for children aged 9-11 years, when the prompt could significantly improve the accuracy of time perception. The participants overestimated the duration of both upcoming and past events, with the degree of overestimation being found to be negatively correlated with age. Further, a higher degree of accuracy in terms of time estimation was found to be correlated with higher scores on the attention and memory tests, and accuracy of time anticipation was associated with scores of praxis test.