We examined 6- to 9-year-olds' (N = 60, 35 girls, 34% White, 23% Hispanic, 2% Black/African American, 2% Asian/Asian American, 22% Mixed Ethnicity/Race, 17% Unavailable, collected April-September 2019 in Providence, RI, USA) first-person perspectives on their exploration of museum exhibits. We coded goal setting, goal completion, and behaviors…

In one of the first open diffusion experiments with young children, a tool-use task that afforded multiple methods to extract an enclosed reward and a child model habitually using one of these methods were introduced into different playgroups. Eighty-eight children, ranging in age from 2 years 8 months to 4 years 5 months, participated. Measures…

This study examined how societal changes associated with modernization are related to cognitive development. Data were from 4 cultural communities that represented a broad range of traditional and modern elements: the Garifuna (Belize), Logoli (Kenya), Newars (Nepal), and Samoans (American Samoa). Naturalistic observations and the performances of…

Children aged 2 1/2, 3, and 3 1/2 years who had demonstrated appropriate uses for a set of objects, were asked to perform these same actions with objects which varied in similarity in the reference object, or with no object present. (JMB)

Social play emerged earlier than social pretend play with a similar structure; the incidence of social pretend play increased with age. Four strategies for integrating pretense into social play were isolated; among them, verbal recruitment and "join" were found to be more effective than imitation or nonverbal recruitment. (Author/RH)

Infants' and mothers' play was observed at 9, 12, and 18 months for deaf child--deaf mother (DD), deaf child--hearing mother (DH), and hearing child--hearing mother (HH) dyads. At 12 months, HH infants displayed more representational play than DD and DH infants. At 18 months, HH and DD infants displayed more preplanned play than DH infants. (BC)

This study used longitudinal data from five Irish American families and nine Chinese families in Taiwan, in conjunction with cultural psychology research evidence, to propose universal, culturally variable, and developmental dimensions of children's pretend play. Findings raise the theoretical issue of how universal and variable dimensions of…

The effects of high-structure versus low-structure objects on various types and components of pretend play were examined in a sample of 36 low-income, predominantly Afro-American preschoolers. High-structure objects increased the frequency of noninteractive pretend play in three and one-half-year-old triads, but not in five-year-old triads.…

Twenty-two subjects (school-age children, their younger siblings, and their best friends) were observed in their homes while playing a popular board game. Five roles were operationalized and observed: teacher, learner, manager, managee, and playmate. (Author/RH)

In one task, preschoolers pretended to use common objects. Three- and four-year olds used gestures in which body parts represented the objects. Five-year olds used gestures that involved imaginary objects. In a second task, preschoolers were asked to imitate gestures modeled by the experimenter. Three-year olds could not imitate imaginary object…

Investigates the developmental sequence of learning to transform objects into agents and recipients of action in early symbolic play. Each of 48 children (from 14 to 25 months old) demonstrated initiative pretending after an adult modeled agent and recipient substitutions in pretending to talk on the telephone. (Author/CB)

Children ages 7 to 10 and 11 to 14 years of age responded to both moral and conventional forms of transgression. Responses to moral transgressions revolved around intrinsic consequences of acts upon victims, while responses to conventional breaches focused on aspects of the social order. Sex differences were found. (Author/MP)

Three experiments examined 24- though 39-month-olds' understanding of pretend episodes, such as a puppet pouring pretend milk into a container and then tipping it over a toy animal. The children understood the linkage between the two actions and realized that the toy animal would become "wet." (MDM)

Five experiments tested whether children understand pretense intentions before they understand pretense mental representations. Findings revealed that children did not understand that intention is crucial to pretense. Various methodological factors that might have compromised results such as force choice versus yes-no questions or using a…