Pretending and Imagination in Animals and Children

First published in 2002, this book compares and contrasts pretending and imaginative abilities in children and nonhuman primates.

Robert W. Mitchell (Edited by)

9780521283328, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 June 2011

390 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.57 kg

Review of the hardback: 'This is a stimulating book. You will find (i) essays of straightforward data whose relation to the larger issues raised seems unclear, (ii) ideas that stimulate your own 'imagination', (iii) detailed statements by some of the better known human researchers of chimpanzees and gorillas, and (iv) how the clever methodologies used to study human children can be appropriated for work with non-human primates.' Ethology

It is well known that children's activities are full of pretending and imagination, but it is less appreciated that animals can also show similar activities. Originally published in 2002, this book focuses on comparing and contrasting children's and animals' pretenses and imaginative activities. In the text, overviews of research present conflicting interpretations of children's understanding of the psychology of pretense, and describe sociocultural factors which influence children's pretenses. Studies of nonhuman primates provide examples of their pretenses and other simulative activities, explore their representational and imaginative capacities and compare their skills with children. Although the psychological requirements for pretending are controversial, evidence presented in this volume suggests that great apes and even monkeys may share capacities for imagination with children, and that children's early pretenses may be less psychological than they appear.

Foreword Sue Taylor Parker
Preface and acknowledgements
Part I. Historical, Developmental and Comparative Overviews: 1. Imaginative animals, pretending children Robert W. Mitchell
2. A history of pretense in animals and children Robert W. Mitchell
3. Pretending as representation: a developmental and comparative view Lorraine McCune and Joanne Agayoff
Part II. Pretense and Imagination in Children: 4. Language in pretense in the second year: what it can tell us about 'pretending' in pretense and the 'know-how' about the mind Edy Veneziano
5. A longitudinal and cross-sectional study of the emergence of the symbolic function in children between 15 and 19 months of age: pretend play, object permanence understanding and self-recognition Pierre-Marie Baudonnière, Sylvie Margules, Soumeya Belkhenchir, Gwénnaelle Carn, Florence Pèpe and Véronique Warkentin
6. Caregiver-child social pretend play: what transpires? Robert D. Kavanaugh
7. Just through the looking-glass: children's understanding of pretense Angeline Lillard
8. Young children's understanding of pretense and other fictional mental states Jacqueline D. Woolley
9. Pretend play, metarepresentation and theory of mind Peter K. Smith
10. Replica toys, stories and a functional theory of mind Greta G. Fein, Lynn D. Darling and Lois A. Groth
11. Young children's animal-role pretend play Olin Eugene Myers Jr.
12. Imaginary companions and elaborate fantasy in childhood: discontinuity with nonhuman animals Marjorie Taylor and Stephanie M. Carlson
Part III. Pretense and Imagination in Primates: 13. Pretending in monkeys Anne Zeller
14. Pretending primates: play and simulation in the evolution of primate societies Peter C. Reynolds
15. Representational capacities for pretense with scale models and photographs in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Sarah T. Boysen and Valerie A. Kuhlmeier
16. Pretending in free-ranging rehabilitant orangutans Anne E. Russon
17. Seeing with the mind's eye: eye-covering play in orangutans and Japanese macaques Anne E. Russon, Paul L. Vasey and Carole Gauthier
18. Possible precursors of pretend play in nonpretend actions of captive gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) Juan Carlos Gómez and Beatriz Martín-Andrade
19. Pretending culture: social and cognitive features of pretense in apes and humans Warren P. Roberts and Mark A. Krause
20. Empathy in a bonobo Ellen J. Ingmanson
21. Pretend play in a signalling gorilla Marilyn L. Matevia, Francine G. P. Patterson and William A. Hillix
Part IV. Prospects: 22. Exploring pretense in animals and children Robert W. Mitchell
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Animal behaviour [PSVP], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Child & developmental psychology [JMC]