Self‐knowledge in childhood: Relations with children's imaginary companions and understanding of mind

Abstract

Relations between interior self-knowledge and (a) imaginary companion (IC) status and (b) theory of mind (ToM) abilities were investigated in a sample (N= 80) of 4- to 7-year-olds. Interior self-knowledge was assessed in terms of the extent to which children acknowledged that they (rather than an adult) were the authority on unobservable aspects of themselves (e.g., dreaming, thinking, hunger). Compared with children without an IC, those who possessed a parentally corroborated IC ascribed less interior self-knowledge to an adult, with a trend for them to assign more interior self-knowledge to themselves. Children's interior self-knowledge judgments were not associated with their ToM performance. IC status was also unrelated to ToM performance. We consider how having an IC may provide children with opportunities to distinguish between knowledge that is inaccessible to an external observer and that which an external observer may glean without being told.

Imaginary Companions and Young Children's Coping and Competence

“…The modest correspondence between maternal reports of egalitarian child–IC relationships, constructive and friendly coping, and social competence (as rated by teachers) also converges with research linking ICs to social skills. For instance, children with ICs have better emotion understanding (Lindeke & Kavanaugh, ), cooperativeness with peers and adults (Singer & Singer, ), referential communication skills (Roby & Kidd, ), and possibly theory of mind (Davis et al., ; Taylor & Carlson, ), than their peers. Although none of these studies examined child–IC relationship quality, some focused exclusively on IFs, which have often (albeit not in the present sample) been associated with egalitarian relationships (Gleason et al., ).…”

“…We hypothesized that such skills might be present earlier in development if ICs were a sign of social competence rather than social deficits, a view supported by research on preschoolers with ICs. For example, in comparison with their peers, young children who create ICs might have greater social understanding (i.e., awareness of others' mental states and use of those states to predict behavior; Davis, Meins, & Fernyhough, ; Taylor & Carlson, ) and show higher cooperation with peers and adults (Singer & Singer, ). Consequently, we predicted that children with ICs would outperform peers in problem solving and emotion regulation, and avoid coping via aggression or withdrawal.…”

Parental behaviour and children's creation of imaginary companions: A longitudinal study

“…Although the initial results were not replicated (Davis, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2011), several studies have shown that children with ICs may have more developed sociocognitive skills (Davis et al, 2011;Moriguchi & Shinohara, 2012). Taylor and Carlson (1997) suggest that engagement in extensive pretend play may facilitate children's understanding that the psychological world may not always reflect the external world.…”

Agent Perception in Children with and Without Imaginary Companions

“…Taylor and Carlson () found that children with high fantasy orientation, including an IC, performed better on theory of mind tasks, such as apparent‐reality and false belief tasks, than children with low fantasy orientation. Some studies did not replicate this result, using other theory of mind batteries such as Wellman and Liu's () scales (Davis, Meins, & Fernyhough, ), but a recent longitudinal study revealed that children's IC status at 3 years of age predicted better performance on a theory of mind test battery, including apparent‐reality and false belief tasks (Lillard & Kavanaugh, ). The performances in theory of mind batteries including apparent‐reality and false belief tasks may be related to the IC status, whereas the performances in other theory of mind batteries may not.…”

“…Moreover, other studies support an advantage in mental states reasoning in children with an IC. In fact, Davis et al () showed that having an IC may facilitate children's understanding that their knowledge is privileged. Roby and Kidd () also found a relationship between children's IC and referential communication skills.…”