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Body or Mind: Children's Categorizing of Pretense
Author(s) -
Lillard Angeline S.
Publication year - 1996
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/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01823.x
Subject(s) - psychology , mental representation , cognition , theory of mind , representation (politics) , mental state , social cognition , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , politics , neuroscience , political science , law
Researchers studying early social cognition have been particularly interested in pretend play and have obtained evidence indicating that young children do not understand that pretending involves mental representation. The present research investigates whether children think of pretending as a mental state at all, by looking at whether they cluster it with other mental states or with physical processes when making certain judgments. The results from 5 experiments suggest that most children under 6 years of age see pretending as primarily physical. Further, when asked about pretending as a 2‐part process entailing planning and execution, even 8‐year‐olds claim that execution of pretense does not involve the mind, although the planning aspect of pretense does.