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Children’s Beliefs About Possibility Differ Across Dreams, Stories, and Reality
Author(s) -
Goulding Brandon W.,
Friedman Ori
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13386
Subject(s) - dream , psychology , reality testing , contrast (vision) , social psychology , developmental psychology , cognition , psychotherapist , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science
Are children’s judgments about what can happen in dreams and stories constrained by their beliefs about reality? This question was explored across three experiments, in which four hundred and sixty‐nine 4‐ to 7‐year‐olds judged whether improbable and impossible events could occur in a dream, a story, or reality. In Experiment 1, children judged events more possible in dreams than in reality. In Experiment 2, children also judged events more possible in dreams than in stories. Both experiments also suggested that children’s beliefs about reality constrain their judgments about dreams and stories. Finally, in Experiment 3 children were asked about impossible events more typical of dreams and stories. In contrast with the other experiments, children now affirmed the events could happen in these worlds.