British Journal of Psychology (2015), 106, 46–67 © 2014 The British Psychological Society www.wileyonlinelibrary.com Looking ahead from age 6 to 13: A deeper insight into the development of planning ability Josef M. Unterrainer 1 * a , Christoph P. Kaller 2,3a , Sandra V. Loosli 2,3 , Katharina Heinze 2,3,4 , Nina Ruh 2,3 , Mirjam Paschke-M€ uller 5 , Reinhold Rauh 5 , Monica Biscaldi 5 and Benjamin Rahm 1 1 Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Mainz, Germany 2 Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany 3 Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Germany 4 Cochlear Implant Center Erlangen, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Department, University Hospital Erlangen, Germany 5 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany Planning ability gradually increases throughout childhood. However, it remains unknown whether this is attributable to global factors such as an increased ability and willingness to inhibit premature, impulsive responding, or due to the availability of specific planning operations, such as being able to mentally plan ahead more steps (‘search depth’) or to derive a clear temporal order of goals by the task layout (‘goal hierarchy’). Here, we studied the development of planning ability with respect to these global and problem-specific aspects (search depth and goal hierarchy) of performance in 178 children from 6 to 13 years using the Tower of London task. As expected, global performance gradually developed with age. In accordance, planning durations increasingly reflected global problem demands with longer pre-planning in harder problems. Furthermore, specific planning parameters revealed that children were increasingly capable of mentally searching ahead more steps. In contrast, the ability to derive a goal hierarchy did not show age-related changes. While the global development of planning performance and adaptive planning durations were proposed to primarily reflect enhanced self-monitoring, the specific increase in search depth across childhood that most likely proceeds until young adult age represents more directly planning-related processes. Thus, development of planning ability is supported by multiple contributions. In many situations beyond everyday routine, the ability to plan ahead is essential for effective performance. As planning entails the mental modelling and anticipation of the consequences of actions prior to their execution in the real world (Goel & Grafman, 1995; Ward & Morris, 2005), it is among the most complex cognitive functions and is known to be tightly coupled to a functioning prefrontal cortex (Shallice, 1982; Unterrainer & Owen, *Correspondence should be addressed to Josef M. Unterrainer, Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Mainz, Duesbergweg 6, Mainz 55128, Germany (email: unterrai@uni-mainz.de). a Both authors contributed equally. DOI:10.1111/bjop.12065 46