儿童时间概念探新

doi:10.19988/j.cnki.issn.2095-1159.2026.02.003

Psychological Research

2026, Vol. 19

Issue (2): 117-128 DOI: 10.19988/j.cnki.issn.2095-1159.2026.02.003

Fundamental Research

Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search

A further discussion on children's concept of time

YU Xide

School of education, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou 510665

Abstract
Figure/Table
References
Related Citation (1)

Download: PDF (1305 KB) HTML (1 KB)
Export: BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)

Abstract Children's concept of time is their consciousness generation and representation of “time sequence” and “time distance”. Children's qualitative cognition of time sequence and quantitative perception of time distance have already been proved by previous studies, while the temporal perspective-taking （TPT） under the context of “time sequence” and the multidimensional hierarchical mapping under the context of “time distance” are new research horizons. According to the literature review, children's concept of time can be divided into action time and language time, as well as reference time and metaphor time. The occurrence and development of children's concept of time go from “dependent on specific events” to “independent of specific events”, which can be further divided into three stages： The first stage, the latent concept stage. Time and events are interdependent. Second, the pre-conceptual stage. Time and events begin to separate, but the separation process is not complete; Mental timeline and time perspective are on the way; The accuracy of time interval estimation is gradually improved; Also, children at this stage can integrate time sequence and time distance to infer causation and time. Third, the full concept stage. Children at this stage represent abstract time independently, and gradually develop the multi-dimensional metaphor of “time-space-number-people”.

Key words： time concept action time language time reference time metaphorical time development stage

	Service

	E-mail this article
	Add to my bookshelf
	Add to citation manager
	E-mail Alert
	RSS
	Articles by authors
	YU Xide

Cite this article:

YU Xide. A further discussion on children's concept of time[J]. Psychological Research, 2026, 19(2): 117-128.

URL:

http://xlyj.magtech.com.cn/EN/10.19988/j.cnki.issn.2095-1159.2026.02.003 OR http://xlyj.magtech.com.cn/EN/Y2026/V19/I2/117

[1] 毕翠华, 黄希庭. (2016). 工作记忆的存储时间及目标时距对时间知觉的影响.心理科学, 39(4), 801-806.
[2] 毕鸿燕, 彭聃龄. (2002). 4~6岁儿童三种时间副词理解能力及策略的实验研究.心理发展与教育, 18(4), 22-25.
[3] 毕鸿燕, 彭聃龄. (2004). 6~8岁儿童三种时间副词理解能力及策略的实验研究.心理科学, 27(1), 69-71.
[4] 白亚停, 孟杰, 何文广. (2021). 时间词汇加工中的时空隐喻效应:来自阈上/阈下加工的证据.心理研究, 14(1), 20-28.
[5] 杜萱, 林嘉懿, 陈黎静. (2020). 儿童和青少年的空间—时间隐喻图式.心理发展与教育, 36(5), 513-519.
[6] 方格. (1987). 儿童对时间认知的发展.心理科学进展, 4(4), 19-24.
[7] 黄希庭, 李伯约, 张志杰. (2003). 时间认知分段综合模型的探讨.西南师范大学学报(人文社会科学版), 29(2), 5-9.
[8] 刘范, 方富熹. (1986). 6-11岁儿童的因果判断(1) :时间和空间因素的作用初探. 心理科学, 9(6), 3-11 + 16.
[9] 李丹, 刘思格, 白幼玲, 等. (2021). 恐惧面孔影响不同年龄个体时距知觉:任务难度的调节作用.中国临床心理学杂志, 29(6), 1119-1126.
[10] 李丹, 尹华站. (2019). 恐惧情绪面孔影响不同年龄个体时距知觉的研究.心理科学, 42(5), 1061-1068.
[11] 刘鹏飞, 崔佳歆, 任维聪, 张志杰. (2021). 4~7 岁儿童时间概念的获得方式.心理与行为研究, 19(4), 454-459.
[12] 任琳,丁道群, 黎晓丹, 梁敏响. (2018). 手势促进语言的理解与学习:具身认知的视角.心理研究, 11(2),119-123.
[13] 任维聪, 马将, 张志杰. (2019). 时间认知的年老化及其神经机制. 生物化学与生物物理进展, 46(1), 63-72.
[14] 苏佳佳, 叶浩生. ( 2023). 元宇宙与具“身”认知.心理研究, 16(1), 3-11.
[15] 陶丹, 李朋, 宣宾, 周晶, 李明珠. (2018). 临床抑郁症和阈下抑郁个体的时间知觉模式及其神经机制.科学通报, 63(20), 2036-2047.
[16] 陶云, 马谐. (2010). 面孔情绪下3~8岁儿童时距知觉的实验研究.心理发展与教育, 26(3), 225-232.
[17] 王宁, 王锦琰, 罗非. (2016). 情绪对时间知觉的影响及其神经生理学机制.生理学报, 68(4), 464-474.
[18] 吴睿明, 黄彦萍, 李红, 冯廷勇, 龙长权. (2005). 3.5~5.5岁儿童时序认知能力的发展研究.心理发展与教育, 21(3),7-12.
[19] 王小英, 杨海燕, 王丽娟, 石友梅. (2006). 4~6岁儿童未来时间认知教学的实验研究.心理科学, 29(5), 1063-1067.
[20] 徐岚, 陈全, 崔楠, 陆凯丽. (2019). 享受当下, 还是留待未来?时间观对跨期决策的影响.心理学报, 51(1), 96-105.
[21] 尹华站, 崔晓冰, 白幼玲, 曹格格, 邓靖欣, 李丹. (2020). 时间信息加工与信息加工时间特性双视角下的重要时间参数及其证据.心理科学进展, 28(11), 1853-1864.
[22] 尹华站, 李丹, 黄希庭. (2011). 工作记忆影响时距加工的初步研究.心理学探新, 31(4), 308-311.
[23] 尹华站, 柳昀哲, 李丹, 李波. (2012). 1秒以上时距判断的ERP研究.心理学探新, 32(2), 122-128.
[24] 尹华站. (2013). 时间加工分段性研究述评.心理科学, 36(3), 743-747.
[25] 尹华站, 李丹, 陈盈羽, 黄希庭. (2016). 1~6 秒时距认知分段性特征.心理学报, 48(9), 1119-1129.
[26] 尹华站, 李丹, 陈盈羽, 黄希庭. (2017). 1s范围视听时距认知的分段性研究.心理科学, 40(2), 321-328.
[27] 尹华站, 李丹, 袁祥勇, 黄希庭. (2013). 跨通道情境下双任务范式与计时中断范式中的效应比较.心理学报, 45(8), 860-873.
[28] 尹华站, 孙祖迪, 李丹, 施建农. (2015). 注意缺陷多动障碍儿童的时间知觉特征.中国心理卫生杂志, 29(1), 22-27.
[29] 杨利利, 方格. (2004). 儿童时距认知的研究现状. 中国心理卫生杂志, 18(4), 248-250+253.
[30] 杨姗, 方格. (1998). 儿童时距认知的研究简介及发展趋向.心理科学进展, 6(1), 21-26.
[31] 余习德. (2022). 儿童时间认知研究范式:困境与超越.心理发展与教育, 38(5), 749-760.
[32] 余习德, 李明, 夏新懿, 朱一奕, 高定国. (2019). 儿童时间言语的发生与发展.学前教育研究, 290, 57-69.
[33] 余习德, 邓丽仪, 熊希灵, 鲁成, 高定国. (2018). 时间流逝感:时间心理学新视野.心理研究, 11(6), 483-493.
[34] 于晓琳, 黄希庭, 陈有国, 邱俊杰. (2018). “现在”有多长:空时距知觉的分段性研究. 西南大学学报(社会科学版), 44(3), 111-117+191.
[35] 袁小婷, 叶浩生. (2018). 具身认知一体论:二元还是一元?心理研究, 11(2), 100-105.
[36] 姚竹曦, 张亮, 张侃. (2015). 标量计时模型的影响因素及发展.心理科学进展, 23(5), 784-792.
[37] 张锋, 靳凯歌, 朱豫敏. (2021). 时间自我的研究综述.心理研究, 14(3), 209-215.
[38] 张锋, 尹华站, 靳凯歌, 臧鑫磊, 朱芷毅, 赵俊峰. (2022). 聋生1秒以下与以上的视时距知觉研究.心理发展与教育, 38(4), 457-465.
[39] 张锋, 赵国祥. (2019). 情绪对聋哑大学生时距知觉的影响.心理科学, 42(4), 861-867.
[40] 张晶晶, 佟月华, 侯昱倩. (2016). 数学学习困难儿童时间估计研究. 中国特殊教育, 22(11), 51-54+74.
[41] 张志杰, 袁宏, 黄希庭. (2006). 不同时距加工机制的比较:来自ERP的证据(Ⅰ).心理科学, 29(1), 87-90.
[42] 周榕. (2003). 儿童时间隐喻能力发展趋势初探.现代外语, 26(3), 222-231.
[43] 周榕, 黄希庭. (2001). 儿童时间隐喻表征能力的发展研究. 心理科学, 24(5), 606-607+609.
[44] 朱曼殊, 武进之, 应厚昌, 朱腊梅, 庄秀娟等. (1982). 儿童对几种时间词句的理解.心理学报, 14(3), 294-301.
[45] Addyman C., Rocha S., & Mareschal D. (2014). Mapping the origins of time: scalar errors in infant time estimation.Developmental Psychology, 50(8), 2030-2035.
[46] Beck S. R., Robinson E. J., Carroll D. J., & Apperly I. A. (2006). Children's thinking about counterfactuals and future hypotheticals as possibilities.Child Development, 77, 413-426.
[47] Block, R. A., & Zakay, D. (2001). Psychological time at the Millennium: Some past, present, future and interdisciplinary issues. In M. P. Soulsby & J. T. Fraser (Eds.), Time: Perspective at the Millenium (The study of time). London: Bergin & Carvey.
[48] Block, R. A., & Gruber, R. P. (2014). Time perception, attention, and memory: A selective review.Acta Psychologica, 149, 129-133.
[49] Bottini, R., & Casasanto, D. (2013). Space and time in the child's mind: Metaphoric or ATOMic?Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 803.
[50] Brace N., Doran C., Pembery J., Fitzpatrick E., & Herman R. (2019). Assessing time knowledge in children aged 10 to 11 years. InternationalJournal of Assessment Tools in Education, 6(4), 580-591.
[51] Brannon E. M., Libertus M. E., Meck W. H., & Woldorff M. G. (2008). Electrophysiological measures of time processing in infant and adult brains: Weber's Law holds.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(2), 193-203.
[52] Brannon E. M., Roussel L. W., Meck W. H., & Woldorff M. (2004). Timing in the baby brain.Cognitive Brain Research, 21(2), 227-233.
[53] Brannon E. M., Suanda S., & Libertus K. (2007). Temporal discrimination increases in precision over development and parallels the development of numerosity discrimination.Developmental Science, 10(6), 770-777.
[54] Casasanto D., Fotakopoulou O., & Boroditsky L. (2010). Space and time in the child's mind: Evidence for a cross-dimensional asymmetry.Cognitive Science, 34(3), 387-405.
[55] Charras P., Droit-Volet S., Brechet C., & Coull J. T. (2017). The spatial representation of time can be flexibly oriented in the frontal or lateral planes from an early age.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 43(4), 832-845.
[56] Coull, J. T., & Droit-Volet, S. (2018). Explicit understanding of duration develops implicitly through action.Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 22(10), 923-937.
[57] Coull J. T., Johnson K. A., & Droit-Volet S. (2018). A mental timeline for duration from the age of 5 years old.Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1155.
[58] De la Charie A., Delteil F., Labrell F., Colas P., Vigneras J., Camara-Costa H., & Mikaeloff Y. (2021). Time knowledge impairments in children with ADHD.Archives de Pédiatrie, 28(2), 129-135.
[59] Droit-Volet, S. (2016). Development of time.Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 8, 102-109.
[60] Droit-Volet, S. (2013). Time perception in children: A neurodevelopmental approach.Neuropsychologia, 51(2), 220-234.
[61] Droit-Volet S., Clement A., & Fayol M. (2008). Time, number and length: Similarities and differences in discrimination in adults and children.The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61(12), 1827-1846.
[62] Droit-Volet S., Clément A., & Fayol M. (2003). Time and number discrimination in a bisection task with a sequence of stimuli: A developmental approach.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 84(1), 63-76.
[63] Droit-Volet, S., & Coull, J. (2015). The developmental emergence of the mental time-line: Spatial and numerical distortion of time judgement.PLoS One, 10(7), e0130465.
[64] Droit-Volet, S., & Coull, J. T. (2016). Distinct developmental trajectories for explicit and implicit timing.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 150, 141-154.
[65] Droit-Volet, S., & Gil, S. (2016). The emotional body and time perception.Cognition and Emotion, 30(4), 687-699.
[66] Droit-Volet S., Fayolle S., & Gil S. (2016). Emotion and time perception in children and adults: The effect of task difficulty.Timing & Time Perception, 4(1), 7-29.
[67] Droit-Volet, S., & Zelanti, P. S. (2013). Development of time sensitivity and information processing speed.PLoS One, 8(8), e71424.
[68] Forman, H. (2015). Events and children's sense of time: A perspective on the origins of everyday time-keeping. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 259.
[69] Friedman, W. J. (1990). Children's representations of the pattern of daily activities. Child Development, 61, 1399-1412.
[70] Friedman, W. J. (1991). The development of children's memory for the time of past events.Child Development, 62(1), 139-155.
[71] Gautier, T., & Droit-Volet, S. (2002). Attention and time estimation in 5- and 8- year-old children a dual-task procedure.Behavioural Processes, 58, 57-66.
[72] Gibson, J. J. (1975). Events are perceivable but time is not. In Fraser. J. T. & Lawrence, N.(Eds.), The study of time, vol.2 (pp.295-301). Berlin: Springer.
[73] Gil, S., & Droit-Volet, S. (2012). Emotional time distortions: The fundamental role of arousal.Cognition and Emotion, 26(5), 847-862.
[74] Gil S., Niedenthal P. M., & Droit-Volet S. (2007). Anger and time perception in children.Emotion, 7(1), 219-225.
[75] Jack F., Friedman W., Reese E., & Zajac R. (2016). Age-related differences in memory for time, temporal reconstruction, and the availability and use of temporal landmarks.Cognitive Development, 37, 53-66.
[76] Labrell F., Costa H. C., Perdry H., & Dellatolas G. (2020). The time knowledge questionnaire for children.Heliyon, 6(2), e03331.
[77] Labrell F., Mikaeloff Y., Perdry H., & Dellatolas G. (2016). Time knowledge acquisition in children aged 6 to 11 years and its relationship with numerical skills. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 143, 1-13.
[78] Lakoff G.,& Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought IL: University of Chicago Press The embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. IL: University of Chicago Press.
[79] Lewis, P. A., & Miall, R. C. (2003). Distinct systems for automatic and cognitively controlled time measurement: Evidence from neuroimaging,Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 13, 250-255.
[80] Matthews, W. J., & Meck, W. H. (2016). Temporal cognition: Connecting subjective time to perception, attention, and memory.Psychological Bulletin, 142(8), 865-907.
[81] McCormack, T., & Hoerl, C. (1999). Memory and temporal perspective: The role of temporal frameworks in memory development. Developmental Review, 19, 154-182.
[82] Mccormack, T., & Hoerl, C. (2017). The development of temporal concepts: Learning to locate events in time.Timing & Time Perception, 5(3-4), 297-327.
[83] Michel F., Harb F., & Hidalgo M. P. (2012). The concept of time in the perception of children and adolescents.Trends Psychiatry Psychotherapy, 34(1), 38-41.
[84] Nani A., Manuello J., Liloia D., Duca S., Costa T., & Cauda F. (2019). The neural correlates of time: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 31(12), 1796-1826.
[85] Nazari M. A., Sabaghypour S., Pezhmanfard M., Azizi K., & Vahedi S. (2021). The influence of children's mathematical competence on performance in mental number line, time knowledge and time perception.Psychological Research, 85(5), 2023-2035.
[86] Pathman T., Coughlin C., & Ghetti S. (2018). Space and time in episodic memory: Effects of linearity and directionality on memory for spatial location and temporal order in children and adults.PLoS One, 13(11), e0206999.
[87] Pathman, T., & Ghetti, S. (2014). The eyes know time: a novel paradigm to reveal the development of temporal memory.Child Development, 85(2), 792-807.
[88] Pfeuty M., Ragot R., & Pouthas V. (2003). When time is up: CNV time course differentiates the roles of the hemispheres in the discrimination of short tone durations.Experimental Brain Research, 151(3), 372-379.
[89] Piaget, J. (1946). Le développement de la notion de temps chez l'enfant. Presses Universitaires de France.
[90] Piaget, J. (1966). Problème du temps et de la function. Etudes d'épistémologie génétique. Presses Universitaires de France.
[91] Piaget, J., & Meylan-Backs, M. (1966). Comparaisons et opérations temporelles et relation avec la vitesse et la fréquence. Etudes d'épistémologie génétique. Presses Universitaires de France.
[92] Pouthas V., Droit S., & Jacquet A. Y. (1993). Temporal experiences and time knowledge in infancy and early childhood.Time & Society, 2(2), 199-218.
[93] Rattat, A. C., & Droit-Volet, S. (2007). Implicit long-term memory for duration in young children.European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19, 271-285.
[94] Ruscher, J. B. (2012). Describing grief under cyclical versus linear conceptions of time.Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 31(3), 321-330.
[95] Scarf D., Boden H., Labuschagne L. G., Gross J., & Hayne H. (2017). “What” and “where” was when? Memory for the temporal order of episodic events in children.Developmental Psychobiology, 59(8), 1039-1045.
[96] Siegler, R. S., & Richards, D. D. (1979). Development of time, speed, and distance concepts.Developmental Psychology, 15, 288-298.
[97] Stites, L., & Ozcaliskan, S. (2021). The time is at hand: Literacy predicts changes in children's gestures about time.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 50(5), 967-983.
[98] Tillman, K. A., & Barner, D. (2015). Learning the language of time: Children's acquisition of duration words.Cognitive Psychology, 78, 57-77.
[99] Tillman K. A., Marghetis T., Barner D., & Srinivasan M. (2017). Today is tomorrow's yesterday: Children's acquisition of deictic time words.Cognitive Psychology, 92, 87-100.
[100] Tillman K. A., Tulagan N., Fukuda E., & Barner D. (2018). The mental timeline is gradually constructed in childhood.Developmental Science, 21(6), e12679.
[101] Tobia V., Rinaldi L., & Marzocchi G. M. (2018). Time processing impairments in preschoolers at risk of developing difficulties in mathematics.Developmental Science, 21(2), e12526.
[102] VanMarle, K., & Wynn, K. (2006). Six-month-old infants use analog magnitudes to represent duration.Developmental Science, 9(5), F41-F49.
[103] Zelanti, P. S., & Droit-Volet, S. (2011). Cognitive abilities explaining age-related changes in time perception of short and long durations.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109(2), 143-157.
[104] Zhang, M., & Hudson, J. A. (2018a). Children's understanding of yesterday and tomorrow.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 170, 107-133.
[105] Zhang, M., & Hudson, J. A. (2018b). The development of temporal concepts: Linguistic factors and cognitive processes.Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2451.