Comprehension of past and future reference revisited

Sentences containing either past tense, future tense, before, or after were presented with sets of sequential pictures to 150 children from 3 to 7 years. Analysis of errors and correct answers led to the following conclusions: (a) Linguistic factors had a major influence on the results, (b) past and future are understood first as mutually exclusive domains, (c) understanding of linguistic reference to past and future increases gradually from 3 through 7 years, and (d) the ability to temporally decenter increases with age. In addition, before and after were better understood than past or future verb tense. This finding is discussed in terms of (a) the difficulty of establishing the limits of the present in relation to past and future, (b) the center picture serving as a reference point for sentences with before and after, and (c) the difference between understanding reference to three sequenced actions and understanding reference to the sequence of past, present, and future relations.