Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:16:52.244Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Young children are not driven to explore imaginary worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Angela Nyhout Open the ORCID record for Angela Nyhout [Opens in a new window]  and
Ruth Lee Open the ORCID record for Ruth Lee [Opens in a new window]
Angela Nyhout
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7FS, UKa.nyhout@kent.ac.uk
Ruth Lee
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 INN, UKruth.lee@qub.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We address Dubourg and Baumard's claim that imaginary worlds are most appealing early in the lifespan when the exploratory drive is highest. Preschool-age children prefer fictions set in the real world, and fantastical information can be difficult for children to represent in real time. We speculate that a drive to explore imaginary worlds may emerge after children acquire substantial real-world skills and knowledge. An account of age effects on fictional preferences should encompass developmental change.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e291
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barnes, J. L., Bernstein, E., & Bloom, P. (2015). Fact or fiction? Children's preferences for real versus make-believe stories. Imagination, Cognition and Personality: Consciousness in Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice, 34, 243–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanco, N. J., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2021). Systematic exploration and uncertainty dominate young children's choices. Developmental Science, 24(2), e13026.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bohn-Gettler, C. M., Rapp, D. N., Van den Broek, P., Kendeou, P., & White, M. J. (2011). Adults’ and children's monitoring of story events in the service of comprehension. Memory & Cognition, 39(6), 992–1011.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dubourg, E., Thouzeau, V., de Dampierre, C., & Baumard, N. (2021). Exploratory preferences explain the cultural success of imaginary worlds in modern societies. PsyArXiv, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/d9uqs.Google Scholar
Ferguson, H. J., & Sanford, A. J. (2008). Anomalies in real and counterfactual worlds: An eye-movement investigation. Journal of Memory and Language, 58(3), 609–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, P. L. (2021). Early constraints on the imagination: The realism of young children. Child Development, 92(2), 466–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, R., Chambers, C. G., Huettig, F., & Ganea, P. A. [Unpublished manuscript]. Adults, but not children use fictional information to override stored semantic knowledge during anticipatory linguistic processing.Google Scholar
Lee, R., Chambers, C. G., Huettig, F., & Ganea, P. A. (2017). Children's semantic and world knowledge overrides fictional information during anticipatory language processing. In Gunzelmann, G., Howes, A., Tenbrink, T. & Davelaar, E. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 39th annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 730–735). Cognitive Science Society.Google Scholar
Nieuwland, M. S., & Van Berkum, J. J. (2006). When peanuts fall in love: N400 evidence for the power of discourse. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(7), 1098–1111.Google ScholarPubMed
Nyhout, A. (2015). Imagining story spaces: Young readers’ ability to construct spatial representations of narrative. [Doctoral Dissertation, University of Waterloo]. UW Space. https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/9442.Google Scholar
Nyhout, A., & O'Neill, D. K. (2017). Children's enactment of characters’ movements: A novel measure of spatial situation model representations and indicator of comprehension. Mind, Brain, and Education, 11(3), 112–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richert, R. A., & Smith, E. I. (2011). Preschoolers’ quarantining of fantasy stories. Child Development, 82(4), 1106–1119.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, C. M., Gopnik, A., & Ganea, P. A. (2015). Learning to learn from stories: Children's developing sensitivity to the causal structure of fictional worlds. Child Development, 86(1), 310–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisberg, D. S., Sobel, D. M., Goodstein, J., & Bloom, P. (2013). Young children are reality-prone when thinking about stories. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 13, 383–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zwaan, R. A., & Radvansky, G. A. (1998). Situation models in language comprehension and memory. Psychological Bulletin, 123(2), 162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed