ABSTRACT
Seminal studies on children’s episodic future thinking (EFT) have focused on EFT facilitated by direct experience. However, social EFT—helping someone with a future task—may rely on observing that person to infer goals and offer appropriate support. The role of personal and observational memory in guiding EFT for oneself and another was examined. One hundred sixty-four children ages 3–5 years (92 females) who were Asian (n = 34), Black (n = 2), White (n = 118) and mixed-race (n = 8) (remaining unknown) participated. Results showed that children performed best when episodic memory (EM) and EFT conditions matched: Personal EM supported EFT for oneself and observational EM supported EFT for another, both above chance (respectively, p < 0.0001, g = 0.49; p < 0.0001, g = 0.39).