Returning to the present moment: Thinking about one’s childhood increases focus on the hedonistic present

Abstract

Children seem to live more in the present moment than adults. But is it possible to make the present time perspective more available among adults? Four experiments demonstrated that activating childhood selves can lead adults to be more embedded in the hedonistic present. Studies 1 and 2 showed that recalling memories from childhood, either in an open-ended or a structured form, increased participants’ focus on the hedonistic present. Study 3 showed that this effect also occurred after an implicit childhood manipulation. Study 4 revealed that taking the perspective of a child significantly increased orientation to the hedonistic present, compared to taking the perspective of an adult. The effects of activation of childhood selves were not mediated by mood, nostalgia, impatience, concentration, difficulty of the task, enjoyment connected with the task, or involvement in the task. Evaluation of one’s childhood and tendency to relive childhood memories did not affect the results.

Keywords:

• Childhood memories
• perspective-taking
• regression
• time perspective

Notes

1 The words were selected based on a pilot study on university students (N = 57) who generated associations to categories “childhood” and “adulthood.” Another group of students (N = 20) were asked to evaluate the valence of the words. It was confirmed that both conditions had the same number of positively and negatively valenced words.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (grant number 2016/23/B/HS6/00318).

Notes on contributors

Hubert Suszek

Hubert Suszek is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warsaw. His research interests include self-concept, implicit cognition, psychopathology and psychotherapy. Mirosław Kofta is full professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warsaw. His research focuses on personality and motivational processes, and social & political cognition. Among other topics, his studies address control deprivation and learned helplessness, anti-Semitism, dehumanization, and conspiracy theories. Maciej Kopera is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of Warsaw. His research interests cover cognitive neuropsychology, assessment of cognitive, social and emotional functions, automatic cognitive and emotional processing.