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Quote: Originally posted by JessRHUL on 29/4/2011

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Hi campasarow, thanks for reassuring people.

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Also done it. 

Cant wait to go camping!

Completed.

Hi Mel, you are quite right, the temporal closeness of an intended future event is likely to affect the extent to which someone is able to pre-experience the event as if they were actually there. The closer in time, the more real it feels when you think about it.

I do use time boundaries (two months, six months) to analyse results. The reason for asking for the specific date is to get people thinking about one specific occasion which provides a baseline for intention - if you really intend to do something the chances are you can say when you will be doing it. Asking how sure someone is that this plan won't change provides some measure of confidence (so we can look to see if confidence ratings are related to recall).

Obviously it's all academic really because "the future" only exists inside the human mind and nobody can be sure that they will really do something they are planning in the future. Which is why I am studying this subject in the context of psychology and law. If you are interested, I think this article neatly highlights the importance of research investigating future intentions in legal contexts. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100526/full/465412a.html

THANKS VERY MUCH!!

To everyone who took part, I am really grateful for your time and trouble in helping me out. If anybody enjoys this sort of thing, or just wants to help out other researchers, this website is full of academic psychology studies needing participants. There are lots of different types of research, worth a look if you have the time. http://www.onlinepsychresearch.co.uk/

Thank you again. I will be in touch with the prize draw winner via email in the next month. If you want to find out more about eyewitness research at Royal Holloway, this is the link to our website. http://www.pc.rhul.ac.uk/sites/rheg/

Best wishes and thanks again,  Jess