Paracosms: The Imaginary Worlds of Middle Childhood

The invention of imaginary worlds (“paracosms”) is a creative activity of middle childhood that has previously been investigated primarily with retrospective adult reports and biographical accounts. In descriptions collected from 8‐ to 12‐year‐old children, the prevalence was 16.9% in Study 1 ( n  = 77) and 17.4% in Study 2 ( n  = 92). Children with and without paracosms did not differ in verbal comprehension, divergent thinking (Studies 1 and 2) or working memory (Study 2). However, children with paracosms had more difficulty with inhibitory control (Study 2) and had higher creativity scores on a story‐telling task (Studies 1 and 2). Paracosms provided a vehicle for stories associated with imaginary companions and/or for developing complex narratives alone or with friends.