Psychological Development and Education ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (2): 121-127.

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Young Children’s Understanding of the Role of Intention and Action in Pretense

MENG Hong-xia1,2, LIU Xi-ping1   

  1. 1. College of Education, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China;
    2. Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300074, China
  • Online:2010-03-15 Published:2010-03-15

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Abstract: This research investigated 3-to 5-year-old's understanding of the role of intention and action in pretense.There are two main perspectives on how children understand pretense.One view is that children understand the mental aspects of pretending.The alternative view is that children just understand the action aspects of pretending.This research used video approach to test these two interp retations.In the experiment,the experim enter presented children with 3 types of videotaped scenarios:with intention-with action、with intention-noaction、nointention-with action,and asked the children to answer whether the protagonists were pretending.The results of this study suggest that in certain facilitating conditions (intention information salient)children can understand the mental aspects of pretending,and the familiarity of the pretend animal maybe affect children's understanding of the pretending.

Key words: pretense, the intention of the pretending, the action of the pretending, familiarity, young children

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1
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