The current study used a minimalist paradigm to examine young children’s capacity to imagine and prepare for certain and uncertain immediate future outcomes. In a counterbalanced order, 2.5-year-old children (N = 32) completed twelve trials each of two tasks: (1) the forked tube task, which assessed their ability to cover two possible tube exits to ensure they would catch a single target with an uncertain future trajectory, and (2) the double tube task, which assessed their ability to cover two separate tube exits to ensure they would catch two targets with certain future trajectories. Even though the optimal preparatory action was the same across both tasks, children were much more likely to spontaneously and consistently demonstrate this action in the double tube task than the forked tube task. Children’s responses were unaffected by the number of targets seen in the demonstration phase, and instead appeared to be based on the particular contingencies of each apparatus. These results are consistent with the possibility that young children specifically struggle to imagine and prepare for mutually exclusive versions of uncertain future events.

Impulsivity predicts alcohol misuse and risk for alcohol use disorder. Cognition mediates much of this association. Genes also account for a large amount of variance in alcohol misuse, with dopamine and serotonin receptor genes of particular interest, because of their role in motivated behavior. The precise psychological mechanisms through which such genes confer risk is unclear. Trait impulsivity conveys risk for alcohol misuse by influencing two distinct domains of cognition: beliefs about the reinforcing effects of alcohol consumption (positive alcohol expectancy) and the perceived ability to resist it (drinking refusal self-efficacy). This study investigated the effect of the dopamine-related polymorphism in the DRD2/ANKK1 gene (rs1800497) and a serotonin-related polymorphism in the HTR2A gene (rs6313) on associations between impulsivity, cognition, and alcohol misuse in 120 emerging adults (18-21years). HTR2A predicted lower positive alcohol expectancy, higher refusal self-efficacy, and lower alcohol misuse. However, neither polymorphism moderated the linkages between impulsivity, cognition, and alcohol misuse. This is the first report of an association between HTR2A and alcohol-related cognition. Theoretically-driven biopsychosocial models have potential to elucidate the specific cognitive mechanisms through which distal risk factors like genes and temperament affect alcohol misuse in emerging adulthood.