Signs of Pretense Across Age and Scenario

Abstract

Participation in imagined worlds is a hallmark of the human species, and yet we know little about the context of its early emergence. The experiments reported here replicated and extended in 2 directions Lillard and Witherington's (2004) study of how mothers pretend to have snacks, across different ages of children (15-to 24-month-olds, Experiment 1) and to a different scenario (personal grooming, Experiment 2). Mothers' pretend behaviors changed little as infants aged, but there were some scenario differences. Most striking in this research was the consistency with which particular maternal pretend behaviors were associated with children engaging in pretense behaviors and smiling. The findings are discussed with reference to the child's emerging skills in joint attention and social referencing.Humans' ability to participate in worlds beyond the here and now is a hallmark of the species, foundational to planning, invention, art, and much else (Walton, 1990). Pretend play is one of the earliest clear instances of such participation, yet we know little about the context of its emergence. In an earlier study, Lillard and Witherington (2004) examined mothers' behaviors when pretending to have a snack of imaginary Cheerios and juice with their 18-month-olds versus when really having such snacks. Many behavioral changes across pretend and real scenarios were discovered, and several were associated with people ages 4 to adult correctly identifying pretense acts as pretense (Richert & Lillard, 2004) and with 18-month-olds' smiling at and participating in pretense acts, potential indicators of understanding (Lillard, 2004).The experiments reported here extend that work in two directions. The first experiment addresses whether mothers vary their pretend behaviors as children become more competent Copyright © 2007 pretenders, from 15 to 24 months of age, and whether different maternal behaviors are associated with children appearing to understand pretending across this age range. The second experiment examined whether the findings replicate in a different pretend context, personal grooming, to know if the pretend "signs" mark all pretense or only pretend snacking. The results of the earlier Lillard and Witherington (2004) work are reviewed first.Past literature suggested smiling as a possible indicator of pretense (Kavanaugh & Engel, 1998;Piaget, 1962;Wellman & Hickling, 1993). Children and adults use smiling as an indicator of pretend fighting (Boulton, 1993), and nonhuman primates apparently indicate play fighting with the "play face" (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1989;van Hooff, 1972). Lillard and Witherington (2004) found that when mothers were pretending with 18-month-olds, they did smile more than when really having snacks, and their smiles lasted longer on average. In addition, Lillard and Witherington found that pretend smiles were frequently judged to be "about" the mothers' own actions, namely because they were placed just after those actions. A child could plausibly reference the mother's pretend smile as an indicat...

The role of maternal behavior in children's pretense during the second year of life

“…When we controlled for children's frequency of pretense, we found that maternal scaffolding behaviors were consistent across the age groups, which is interesting considering the increase in child pretense with age. However, Lillard et al (2007) also found that maternal pretense behaviors did not vary for children between 15 and 24 months. In that study, Lillard et al (2007) found age-related variations for social behaviors during pretense (e.g., gazes, smiles, pitch variations), suggesting that while maternal pretend play repertoire seemed to be fairly consistent, mothers adjusted their social engagement during pretense to the level of child pretense understanding.…”

“…For example, mothers may engage in pretend play themselves, solicit pretense by reenacting various everyday scripts (e.g., eating, drinking, going to bed), and introduce novel pretense topics by assigning new status functions to objects (e.g., the wooden block counts as a car in a certain pretense context). In a recent study, Lillard et al (2007) found that mothers' pretend behaviors during a pretend snack scenario with their 15-24-month-olds did not change with children's increasing engagement in pretense or with their pretense competence. However, the authors did find that mothers' looks and smiles during pretending were related to children's engagement in pretense, particularly when children were experienced pretenders .…”

Social pretence with mothers and peers at 15 months

“…Mothers are expert play partners who are more likely to respond to infant's pretence initiations, elaborate on them (i.e., what else can be done? ), and make pretend play continue for longer periods (Bornstein et al, 1996;Fiese, 1990;Garvey, 1990;Haight & Miller, 1993;Lillard et al, 2007;Nielsen & Christie, 2008;Noll & Harding, 2003;Slade, 1987). Thus, it seems that when an infant performs a pretend act in the mother's presence, it is more likely to result in coordinated social pretence play, than when the same act is performed in the presence of a peer.…”

Characterizing characters: How children make sense of realistic acting

“…As mentioned, these videos used as their basis the cues to pretense that mothers use when pretending with their children (Lillard & Witherington, 2004;Lillard et al, 2007), but in an extremely exaggerated manner. Targets in the nonrealistic acting videos had larger-than-life movements and vocal expressions.…”