Bijvoet-van den Berg, C. and Hoicka, E. (2018) Preschoolers understand and generate pretend actions using object substitution. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 177. pp. 313-334. ISSN 0022-0965
Abstract
Pretend play is often considered to be an imaginative or creative activity. Yet past experimental research has focused on whether children imitate pretense, follow instructions to pretend, or understand others’ pretense. Thus we cannot be sure that children’s pretense is in fact novel, or whether they simply copy or follows others’ instructions. This is the first experiment to show preschoolers generate their own novel object substitutions. In Study 1, 45 3- and 4-year-olds saw an experimenter use one object as another, accompanied by pretend or trying cues. Children differentiated between the experimenter’s intentions by imitating the actions accompanied by pretend cues, and correcting the actions accompanied by trying cues. Additionally, when the experimenter made her intentions to pretend or try explicit, children produced significantly more novel object substitutions not modeled or verbally requested by the experimenter within a pretend context than within a trying context. Study 2 replicated these findings with 34 3-year-olds using a repeated-measures design. However, it found no relationship between children’s copying or generation of object substitutions and: divergent thinking, inhibitory control, or pretense during free play.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 Elsevier. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Pretend; Object substitution; Intention; Divergent thinking; Inhibitory control; Free play |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Aug 2018 09:29 |
Last Modified: | 01 Oct 2019 00:39 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.008 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.08.008 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:134958 |
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