ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to examine cognitive mechanisms of temporal information processing in children and adults. The starting point of the chapter is the assertion that temporal information processing is involved in a variety of cognitive constructs, including autobiographic memory, prospective memory, theory of mind, and executive control functions and that sense of time is a prerequisite to different goal-directed activities, such as planning, scheduling, monitoring, and task coordination (Fuster, 1993, 2002; Ingvar, 1985). For example, Fuster proposed a general theory of prefrontal functioning in which temporal organization and integration of cognition and behaviour plays a central role: “The enactment of a goal-directed sequence of actions is a continuous process of temporal integration. At the root of this process is the mediation of cross-temporal contingencies between the action plan, the goal, and the acts leading to the goal” (Fuster, 2002, p. 96).
