Answering When Questions About Future Events in the Context of a Calendar System

Three experiments tested a model of question answering called WHEN, which explains the answer descriptions that are generated when adults answer when questions (Golding, Magliano, & Hemphill, 1992). College students answered questions about future events in the context of a 12-month calendar year. The WHEN model specifies how the time of the future event is expressed as a function of the temporal interval between the present point in time and the time of a future event (1–90 days away). The answers included generative descriptions (e.g., “next week on Wednesday”) and specific dates (e.g., “August 13”). The answers systematically varied as a function of temporal interval in a fashion that supported most of the production rules of the WHEN model.