Improving delay of gratification skills in children: a role for episodic future thinking?

Abstract

Engaging in episodic future thinking (EFT) has been consistently shown to promote preference for delayed rewards in adults. In children, however, the same effects have not been observed. Through four empirical studies, this thesis aimed to understand why children struggle to benefit from EFT cues. Studies 1 and 2 used reward-related EFT cues for the first time in children. These cues were not effective at improving delay of gratification. Study 3 examined individual differences which may be important when it comes to benefitting from EFT cues. Children completed delay choice tasks both with and without EFT cues, as well as measures of EFT ability, working memory, attention, and a novel measure of contemplation emotion which assessed the positive and negative emotion a child would feel while waiting for an upcoming positive event. While none of these measures predicted a difference in performance between cued and uncued tasks, higher positive contemplation emotion predicted delayed choice in both EFT-cued and uncued versions of a task involving real rewards. In an EFT-cued delay discounting task with hypothetical rewards, EFT ability, working memory and attentional control predicted lower discounting. In study 4, children who were shown a character experiencing positive contemplation emotion while waiting to get sweets tomorrow were more likely to choose a delayed reward in a subsequent delay choice task compared to a control group. While further work is needed to understand children’s difficulties with EFT cues, the results of this thesis suggest that attempts to improve delay of gratification in children may benefit from a focus on contemplation emotion.

Thesis is embargoed until 31 December 2026.

Date of Award	Dec 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	UK ESRC NINE Doctoral Training Partnership
Supervisor	Teresa McCormack (Supervisor) & Agnieszka Graham (Supervisor)