Two‐year‐olds grasp the intentional structure of pretense acts

Twenty‐two‐ and 27‐month‐old children were tested for their understanding of pretending as a specific intentional action form. Pairs of superficially similar behaviors – pretending to perform an action and trying to perform that action – were demonstrated to children. The 27‐month‐olds, and to some...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental science 2006-11, Vol.9 (6), p.557-564
Main Authors: Rakoczy, Hannes, Tomasello, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior Patterns
Child Behavior
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Ability
Comprehension
Concept Formation
Developmental psychology
Emotions
Experimental psychology
Female
Humans
Imagination
Intention
Language
Male
Preschool children
Psychology, Child
Responses
Social Perception
Task Analysis
Theory
Toddlers
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Summary:Twenty‐two‐ and 27‐month‐old children were tested for their understanding of pretending as a specific intentional action form. Pairs of superficially similar behaviors – pretending to perform an action and trying to perform that action – were demonstrated to children. The 27‐month‐olds, and to some degree the 22‐month‐olds, showed in their responses that they understood the intentional structure of both kinds of behaviors: after pretense models, they themselves performed appropriate inferential pretense acts, whereas after the trying models they properly performed the action or tried to perform it with novel means. These findings are discussed in the light of recent debates about children's developing understanding of pretense and theory of mind.
ISSN:1363-755X
1467-7687
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00533.x