The Development of Planning: It's About Time

Abstract

The formulation of plans is influenced by past experience, is executed in real present time, and is usually directed toward a future goal. A s is true for all behavior, planning occurs in time, is ordered by time, and is experienced over time. Many of our plans are based on knowing when an event w i l l take place (e.g., the plane leaves at 6:15), the likelihood of how often an event occurs (e.g., the 6:15 flight may be late but rarely leaves early), the order of events (e.g., one should be at the boarding gate before the flight leaves), and how long an event w i l l take (e.g., the drive to the airport always takes twice as long as it should). Temporal knowledge includes an understanding of the sequence, duration, frequency, and location of events and actions. Although all components of temporal understanding are important, the following discussion focuses primarily on temporal sequence knowledge and its importance for the acquisition of ski l l in planning.