293 BritishJournal of Developmental Psychology (2004), 22, 293– 310 2004The BritishPsychological Society www.bps.org.uk Domonsters dream? Young children’ s understandingof the fantasy/ reality distinction Tanya Sharon 1 *and Jacqueline D.Woolley 2 1 Emory University, USA 2 TheUniversity ofTexas, USA Youngchildren are oftenthought to confuse fantasy and reality. Thisstudy took a secondlook at preschoolers’ fantasy/ reality differentiation.We employeda new measure offantasy/ reality differentiation—a propertyattribution task— in which childrenwere questionedregarding theproperties of bothreal andfantastical entities. We alsomodified thestandard forced-choice categorization task (into real/ fantastical) toinclude a ‘notsure’ option, thus allowing children to express uncertainty. Finally, we assessedthe relation between individual levels of fantasy orientation and fantasy/ reality differentiation.Results suggest that children have a more developedappreciation of the boundarybetween fantasy and reality thanis often supposed. Thedistinctionbetw eenfantasyandrealityis b asicto humanc ognition,reflectinga fundamental ontologicaldividebetw eenthenon-realandthereal.Ch ildrenhave traditionallyb eenthoughtto confuse theboundary betw eenfantasyandreality.Piage t (1929,1930) h eldth atchildrennotonlyc onfuse fantasyandrealityb utthemental and thephysical,d reams andreality,a ndappearanceandreality.Th einfluenceofthis perspectiveis s tillfe lt ine arlyc hildhoodeducation,mediaa ndcommon-sensebeliefsof adults (see,e.g.,Daw kins,1995). However, theviewthatchildrenconfusefantasy andrealityis a toddswitha large bodyofresearchshowingthatchildrenasyoungasthreeyearsare ableto makev arious o th e r non-reality/realityd istinctions. Forexample,bythreeyears ofage,childrencan distinguishamental entity,s uchasathoughtoranimage,fromtherealphysicalobject itre presents (Estes,Wellman,&Woolley,1989;Wellman& Estes,1986).At aboutthis sameage,childreninth eire verydaytalkdisc ussthecontrasts betw eentoysandreality, picturesandreality,an dpretenseandreality( Woolley&Wellman,1990).Theycan trackrealandpretendtransformationsconcurrently( Harris &Kavanaugh,1993)and, whentheirp retendplayis in terrupted,a re ableto flexiblys tepoutofthepretense modethenreturnto it (Golumb& Kuersten,1996).Inc ontrastto thisre search,the *Correspondenceshould be addressed to Tanya Sharon, Department of Psychology, MercerUniversity, 1400 Coleman Avenue,Macon GA 31207,USA (e-mail: [email protected]). 294 TanyaSharon and Jacqueline D. Woolley smallerbodyofworks pecificallye xploringchildren’sunderstandingofthefantasy/ realityd istinctionconfirms Piaget’s viewthatchildrenoftenfailto observetheproper boundary.Fo rexample,TaylorandHowell( 1973)p resented3-to 5-year-oldc hildren withb othfa ntasticala ndnatural picturesofanimals,andaskedchildrento state whetherthedepictedscenescouldre allyh appen.Three-year-oldshadc onsiderable difficultydiffe rentiatingrealfro mfantasticalscenes.Usingasimilarmethod,Samuels andTaylor(1994)fo undthat childrenwere most confusedwhenevents were perceivedasfrightening.Th ese findingsim plya rolefo remotioninyo ungchildren’s understandingofrealitystatu sandsuggestthat their graspo fthefantasy/reality distinctionmaybesomewhatfragile.Inan otherstudy(Morison&Gardner, 1978),a somewhatfirmergraspo fthedistinctionemergedina noldergroupofchildren (kindergartenthroughs ixthgrad e),butperformancecontinuedto improveth roughout thegrades choolyears. Empiricalresearchonthefantasy/realityd istinctionisth usconsistentwithPiage t’s viewthatyoungchildrenhaved ifficultyn egotiatingtheboundary betw eenfantasy and reality.It isalso c onsistentwithsu rveydata showinghighle velso fbeliefins pecific fantasy entitiessuchas Santa ClausandtheEasterBunny(Clark,1995; Pre ntice, Manosevitz,& Hubbs, 1978;Ro sengren,Kalish,Hickling,& Gelman,1994).It seems clearthatchildrenhavestronglevelso fbeliefine ntitiesthatto adults are unambiguouslyfan tastical. Thesevarioussourcesthuspresentasomewhatinconsistentpicture ofyoung children’sunderstandingofdifferentnon-reality/realityc ontrasts.Tob eginto make senseofthesefindings,wetakea secondloo katchildren’sfantasy/reality differentiation.Ourmethodswere guidedinp artbythebeliefthatthecategorization tasksu sedinp reviousresearchmaygivean o verlys implistic readingofchildren’s understanding,le ndingtheir responsesanappearanceofontologicalcommitmentnot actuallyfe ltb ythem.We were alsogu idedbythefindingthat childrenoftenreveal greatercategory understandingwhentheirkn owledgeis as sessedviain ductiontasks thattesttheira bilityto makeap propriate inferences(e.g.Ge lman&Markman,1987).In atypicalinductiontask,c hildrenare taughtanovelproperty foranobjectandthenare testedforthecategoricalrangeo verwhichtheyare willingto generalizeth atproperty. Thisme thodhasprovenextremelyp roductivein re vealingthedeptha ndcomplexityo f children’searlyc oncepts (e.g.Ge lman,1989;Ka lish&Gelman,1992;Lo pez,Gelman, Gutheil,& Smith,1992;Ma ndler&McDonough,1996).Giventhis,it isp ossibleth at childrenwhofailto labelentitiesaccordingto adultc ategoriesofrealandpretendmay stillre cognized ifferencesbetw eenrealandfantasticalentitiesinte rms oftheira bilities andproperties.Thisp ossibilityh asnotpreviouslyb eentested. Priorworkdo eshoweversuggestthatatleastpart ofthenecessary knowledgeis in place.Specifically,re searchhasshownthatyoungchildrenhaveclearideasaboutthe kindso fthingsre alentitiescanandcannotdo.Byfo urorfiveye ars ofage,theycan identifyan ddifferentiate realentitiesonthebasis oftheir physical,p sychologicaland biologicalproperties(Wellman&Gelman,1998).Forexample,childrenofthisage knowthatlivingthingso ccupyspace,havethoughts andgrow.At thesametime,many fantasy figurespossessclear non-humanabilities,suchastheabilityto travelgreat distancesinstantaneously.Ch ildrenmaythusappreciate that these propertiesare unusualand—mo re importantly—no n-human,before theyappreciate thattheentities that possess themare necessarilyfan tastical.In o therwords,youngchildrenmay demonstrate more accurate fantasy/realitydiffe rentiationinth epropertiesthey attribute to variousentitiesthanin th ecategoriesto whichtheyassignth em. Fantasy/realitydistinction 295 Thefirstgoalofthepresentstudyw asto explore thisp ossibility.Specifically,w e investigatedthenumberandkindso fpropertieschildrenandadults attributedto a rangeo frealandfantasticalentities.Propertiesfromfourfoundationaldomainswere included(physical,b iological,so cialan dmental),becausepreviousresearchhasshown thatchildren’sknowledgede velopsatdifferentratesinth ese domains,withp hysical andsocialkn owledgede velopingbefore knowledgeo fbiologyo rmentalstates(e.g. Carey,1996;Hirshfield& Gelman,1994).Adultp roperty attributionswere alsoas sessed ino rderto (1)confirmth atadults discriminate inth eirp roperty attributionsforrealand fantasticalentities,and(2)e stablishth eadultp atterno fattributionsacross domains. Asecondgoalwas to obtaina more nuancedpicture ofyoungchildren’s categorizationofrealandfantasticalentities.As inp reviousstudies,wehadc hildren categorize avariety ofentities.However, insteadofhavingchildrensimplyc ategorize entitiesas ‘real’o r‘pretend’,weincludedathird‘ notsure’optionto capture uncertainties,whicharguablyc ouldb every prevalentinth isd omainye twouldn otbe capturedinth etraditionalsort. Thethirdgo alo fthiss tudywasto investigate thepotentialro leo findividual differencesinc hildren’sfantasy/realitydiffe rentiation.Oddly,th eroleo findividual differencesinfa ntasy/realityd ifferentiationisrare lyad dressed(cf.Bourchier&Davis, 2000;J ohnson&Harris, 1994;Wo olley,1997).Some childrenare muchmore inclined thanothers to engagein fan tasticalpursuits,suchaspretendingorhavinganimaginary companion(Taylor, 1999).Suchahighfa ntasy orientation(FO)c ouldh avegre at potentialre levanceto children’sbeliefsin fan tasticalfigures.Onth eonehand,ahigh FOc ouldin crease beliefinfa ntasticalentities. FOan dawillingnessto believein th e existenceofentitiesforwhichthere islittle e mpiricalsupport haveoftenbeen conjoined(Singer&Singer, 1990;Vys e,1997).Onth eotherhand,itis notnecessarily thecasethatsomeonewhoenjoys andengagesinfa ntasy frequentlyis also s omeone whoisc onfusedaboutwhere to drawtheboundary.In fa ct, justtheopposite maybe true.Achildw hoengagesinfa ntasyagreatdealmaydevelopamore highlytu nedsense ofwhatisre alandwhatisn otpreciselyb ecauseofhiso rherplay. It isalso p ossibleth atfantasy orientationandunderstandingofthefantasy/reality distinctionare unrelated.Data havebeensparseandcontradictory,w ithso me researchers findingapositiverelation(Singer&Singer, 1981)a ndothers findingno relation(Dierker&Sanders, 1996–1997; Pre ntice e t a l. 1978;Taylo r, Cartw right, & Carlson,1993).Onerecentstudya imedspecificallyat thisqu estion(Bouldin& Pratt, 2001)fo undthatchildrenwithan imaginarycompanionwere more likelyth anchildren withoutsuchacompanionto entertainth epossibilityth at abrieflyp resentedimage wasamonster. However, asubstantialproportionofchildrenwithoutimaginary companionsalsoc onsideredthisp ossibility,le adingtheauthors to suggestthatitis individualdifferencesinc redulity,ra therthanfan tasyorientationperse,thatleadsto fantasy/realityc onfusion.Researchisc omplicatedbythefactthat, at present, there exists nosingle,validatedscaleo ffantasyorientation.Toe nablea ninitialexplorationof theissueinth ecurrentstudy,a rangeo ffantasy orientationtasks were included. Tosu mmarize,thegoals ofthecurrentstudywere (1)to determinewhetherchildren differentiate betw eenrealandfantasticale ntitiesinth epropertiestheyattribute