Abraham Lincoln and Harry Potter: Children's differentiation between historical and fantasy characters

被引:50
作者
Corriveau, Kathleen H. [1 ]
Kim, Angie L. [1 ]
Schwalen, Courtney E. [1 ]
Harris, Paul L. [1 ]
机构
[1] Harvard Univ, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
关键词
History; Fiction; Training; Heuristic; Impossibility; DISTINGUISH FANTASY; REALITY; BELIEFS; ABILITY; EVENTS; NAIVE;
D O I
10.1016/j.cognition.2009.08.007
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
010107 [宗教学];
摘要
Based on the testimony of others, children learn about a variety of figures that they never meet. We ask when and how they are able to differentiate between the historical figures that they learn about (e.g., Abraham Lincoln) and fantasy characters (e.g., Harry Potter). Experiment 1 showed that both younger (3- and 4-year-olds) and older children (5-, 6, and 7-year-olds) understand the status of familiar figures, correctly judging historical figures to be real and fictional figures to be pretend. However, when presented with information about novel figures embedded in either a realistic narrative or a narrative with obvious fantasy elements, only older children used the narrative to make an appropriate assessment of the status of the protagonist. In Experiment 2, 3-, and 4-year-olds were prompted to judge whether the story events were really possible or not. Those who did so accurately were able to deploy that judgment to correctly assess the status of the protagonist. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:213 / 225
页数:13
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