Early Constraints on the Imagination: The Realism of Young Children

Harris, Paul L.

doi:10.1111/cdev.13487

Cited by 49 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…However, its cognitive function is mentioned in research works less frequently [3][4][5]. Nevertheless, the role of imagination in cognitive activity is of high significance, as by its virtue, we can see the connections and laws of the world around us through images [6,7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Complete the Drawing!”: The Relationship between Imagination and Executive Functions in Children

Gavrilova

Veraksa

2022

Education Sciences

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An indirect connection between executive functioning and imagination was revealed earlier in the study of pretend play. This study aimed to explore the relationship between imagination and executive functions in children. Two-hundred-six typically developing children aged 6–7 years were assessed with main executive functions (working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility) and nonverbal imagination (imagination flexibility, image detailedness, image creation strategy, and originality coefficient). Three General Linear Models were built to examine the relationship between executive functions and imagination among children, controlling for age and gender. The obtained results indicate a positive correlation between such characteristics of imagination as originality and flexibility with visual-spatial working memory and cognitive flexibility. However, the data also show that the children who creatively approach the production of new images often experience difficulties with inhibition tasks. The results are interpreted in the context of the educational system and cultural specificities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Complete the Drawing!”: The Relationship between Imagination and Executive Functions in Children

Gavrilova

Veraksa

2022

Education Sciences

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“…Beyond the preschool years, the developing imaginations of children include a growing capacity to imagine the improbable or abnormal (Bowman-Smith et al, 2019;Goulding & Friedman, 2021;Harris, 2021;Shtulman & Carey, 2007;Weisberg, 2016). As of the writing of this paper, this fact has been documented empirically and much discussed, but to date the question of how or why the change occurs remains open.…”

Section: The Unpredictable World Of Our Inner Desiresmentioning

confidence: 92%

Imagination and Social Cognition in Childhood

Kushnir¹

2022

Preprint

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Imagination is a cognitive process used to generate new ideas from old, not just in the service of creativity and fantasy, but also in our ordinary thoughts about alternatives to current reality. In this paper I argue for the central function of imagination in the development of social cognition in infancy and childhood. In section 1 I review a work showing that even in the first year of life, social cognition can be viewed through a nascent ability to imagine the physical possibilities and physical limits on action. In section 2, I discuss how imagination of what should happen is appropriately constrained by what can happen, and how this influences children’s moral evaluations. In the final section, I suggest developmental changes in imagination – especially the ability to imagine improbable events – may have implications for social inference, leading children to learn that inner motives can conflict. These examples point to a flexible and domain-general process that operates on knowledge to make social meaning.

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“…For example, consider children’s limited ability to conceptualize deviations from their firsthand experienced reality, a pattern that challenges representing the supernatural as real. In a review of research on the role of imagination among children around the world, a pattern emerges showing that young children’s imagination is constrained by their knowledge of the real world (Harris, 2021a). Consistent with this proposal, young children’s reliance on their firsthand experience seems to contribute to their skepticism not only about the impossible, but also about the reality status of possible entities and events with which they are unfamiliar or about which they have not heard (Woolley & Ghossainy, 2013; see also Shtulman & Carey, 2007).…”

Section: Belief In Supernatural Unobservables As Real: the Central Ro...mentioning

confidence: 99%

When is cultural input central? The development of ontological beliefs about religious and scientific unobservables

Davoodi

Clegg

2021

Child Dev Perspectives

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Across diverse cultural contexts, children and adults believe in the existence of religious and supernatural unobservables (e.g., gods, angels) as well as scientific and natural unobservables (e.g., germs, oxygen). In this article, we explore the role of cultural input and testimony in children’s developing beliefs in supernatural and natural unobservables as real. We review cross‐cultural research with children and adults on their beliefs about the ontological status of religious and scientific unobservables and the epistemic patterns associated with these beliefs. Based on this evidence, we argue that cultural input plays a central role in the development of belief about supernatural unobservables as real, whereas it plays a less critical role in the development of belief about natural unobservables as real. In the latter case, we argue that direct experiences with the natural world combine with children’s naive theories to generate beliefs about natural unobservable entities and processes as real.

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Early Constraints on the Imagination: The Realism of Young Children

Cited by 49 publications

References 76 publications

“Complete the Drawing!”: The Relationship between Imagination and Executive Functions in Children

“Complete the Drawing!”: The Relationship between Imagination and Executive Functions in Children

Imagination and Social Cognition in Childhood

When is cultural input central? The development of ontological beliefs about religious and scientific unobservables

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