Children's pretense: representing fictional worlds and relating them to reality

儿童的假装：表现虚构的世界并将其与现实联系起来

• 批准号: 327362-2011
• 负责人: Friedman, Ori
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=571999
• 关键词: Children; pretense; representing; fictional; worlds

In the early preschool years, children engage in pretend play and recognize and share in others' pretend play. These abilities are striking: Given that young children know so little about the world, we might expect them to focus on learning about how the world actually is. But in pretense, the opposite seems to happen--children intentionally misrepresent reality. This observation has led many to view pretense as an early form of counterfactual or fictional reasoning. The current proposal agrees with this analysis, but to a point. The relationship between pretense and children's representation of pretense and reality is complicated. In brief, much pretense is consistent with children's general knowledge. For instance, when pretending a block of wood is a car, a child will move the block so that its motion is reminiscent of a car's, and might make sounds ("vrrm") reminiscent of car sounds. Hence, children typically expect objects represented in pretense to retain their real-world properties. Because of this, children may often use shared pretense as a means of acquiring general knowledge. Hence, rather than just allowing children to distort reality, pretense may also allow children to learn about it. Exceptions to such learning should occur when children have evidence that pretense conflicts with their general knowledge, and is fantastic rather than realistic. It is possible, though, that children nonetheless draw generalizations from such pretense. For instance, if the child observes pretense in which two animals are made to speak, the child might infer that in this pretense OTHER animals can also speak. That is, pretense provides a context where children infer general rules governing fictional worlds. The proposed research examines these predictions by examining the inferences young preschoolers, after they watch another person pretend. Beyond increasing our understanding of how children represent and reason about pretense and fictional worlds, this research may also reveal that pretense is a long overlooked means by which children can acquire factual knowledge about the world.

在学龄前的早期，孩子们参与假装游戏，并认识和分享他人的假装游戏。这些能力是惊人的：鉴于幼儿对世界知之甚少，我们可能会期望他们专注于了解世界实际上是如何的。但在假装中，相反的情况似乎发生了--孩子们故意歪曲现实。这一观察使许多人将假装视为反事实或虚构推理的早期形式。 目前的建议同意这一分析，但在一定程度上。儿童对假装和现实的表征与假装之间的关系是复杂的。简言之，许多伪装与儿童的常识是一致的。例如，当假装一块木头是一辆汽车时，一个孩子会移动木头，使它的运动让人想起汽车的运动，并可能发出让人想起汽车声音的声音（“vrrm”）。因此，孩子们通常期望在假装中表示的对象保留其真实世界的属性。正因为如此，孩子们可能经常使用共同的假装作为获得一般知识的一种手段。因此，与其让孩子们歪曲事实，伪装还可以让孩子们了解事实。 当孩子们有证据表明假装与他们的常识相冲突，并且是幻想而不是现实时，就应该开始学习这种知识。然而，孩子们仍然有可能从这种假装中得出一般性的结论。例如，如果孩子观察到两个动物被要求说话的假装，孩子可能会推断，在这个假装中，其他动物也会说话。也就是说，假装提供了一个环境，让孩子们推断出支配虚构世界的一般规则。 这项拟议中的研究通过检查学龄前儿童在观看另一个人假装之后的推断来检验这些预测。除了增加我们对儿童如何表现和推理假装和虚构世界的理解外，这项研究还可能揭示，假装是一种长期被忽视的手段，儿童可以通过这种手段获得关于世界的事实知识。