Linking children’s pretense with creativity has a long tradition. Most authors claim that pretending children exercise divergent thinking, so they can generate many diverse ideas. We show that focusing on divergent thinking when describing the creative features of pretense is not enough. Both pretending and creating are not only about thinking ideas, but also about acting, exploring the surroundings, and adjusting oneself to other people and to the ongoing happenings. Furthermore, both pretending and creating do not entirely rely on generating many and various ideas or actions, as they also include exploration and evaluation of the outcomes. Consequently, we propose to link creativity and pretense by focusing on children’s exploratory and evaluative actions. In our view, pretend play is a creative activity resulting in outcomes that are both novel and valuable.
BassM.De DreuC. K.NijstadB. A. (2008). A meta-analysis of 25 years of mood-creativity research: Hedonic tone, activation, or regulatory focus?Psychology Bulletin, 134(6), 779–806. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012815
2.
BeckS. R. (2016). Why what is counterfactual really matters: A response to Weisberg and Gopnik. Cognitive Science, 40(1), 253–256. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12235
3.
BeckS. R.RiggsK. J. (2014). Developing thoughts about what might have been. Child Development Perspectives, 8(3), 175–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12082
4.
BeghettoR. A.KaufmanJ. C. (2007). Toward a broader conception of creativity: A case for “mini-c” creativity. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 1(2), 73–79. https://doi.org/10.1037/1931-3896.1.2.73
5.
BensonM. S. (1993). The structure of four- and five-year-olds’ narratives in pretend play and storytelling. First Language, 13(38), 203–223. https://doi.org/10.1177/014272379301303803
6.
BodenM. (2004). The creative mind: Myths and mechanisms. Routledge.
CarlsonS.TaylorM. (2005). Imaginary companions and impersonated characters: Sex differences in children’s fantasy play. Merill-Palmer Quarterly, 51(1), 93–118. https://doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2005.0003
9.
CarruthersP. (2006). Why pretend? In NicholsS. (Ed.), The architecture of the imagination (pp. 89–109). Oxford University Press.
ClarkA. (1997). Being there: Putting brain, body, and world together again. MIT Press.
12.
CostallA. (2012). Canonical affordances in context. Avant, 3(2), 85–93.
13.
CurrieG. (1990). The nature of fiction. Cambridge University Press.
14.
DanskyJ. (1980). Make-believe: A mediator of the relationship between play and associative fluency. Child Development, 51(2), 576–579. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129296
15.
DanskyJ. L.SilvermanI. W. (1973). Effects of play on associative fluency in preschool-aged children. Developmental Psychology, 9(1), 38–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0035076
16.
DonaldM. (1991). Origins of the modern mind. Harvard University Press.
17.
FeinG. (1987). Pretend play: Creativity and consciousness. In GorlitzP.WohlwillJ. (Eds.), Curiosity, imagination, and play (pp. 281–304). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
18.
FinkeR.WardT.SmithS. (1992). Creative cognition. MIT Press.
19.
FriedmanR. S.FörsterJ. (2002). The influence of approach and avoidance motor actions on creative cognition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(1), 41–55. https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.2001.1488
20.
GaertnerB. M.SpinradT. L.EisenbergN. (2008). Focused attention in toddlers: Measurement, stability, and relations to negative emotion and parenting. Infant Child Development, 17(4), 339–363. https://doi.org/10.1002/ICD.580
21.
GarveyC. (1990). Play (2nd ed.). Harvard University Press.
22.
GarveyC.BerndtR. (1975, August30–September3). The organization of pretend play [Conference presentation]. The 83rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, IL, United States.
23.
GibsonJ. J. (1986). The ecological approach to visual perception. Psychology Press.
24.
GiffinH. (1981). The metacommunicative process in collective make-believe play [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Colorado, Boulder.
25.
GiffinH. (1984). The coordination of meaning in the creation of a shared make-believe reality. In BrethertonI. (Ed.), Symbolic play: The development of social understanding (pp. 73–100). Academic Press.
26.
GlăveanuV. P. (2013). Rewriting the language of creativity: The five A’s framework. Review of General Psychology, 17(1), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029528
27.
GlăveanuV. P.LubartT.BonnardelN.BotellaM.de BiaisiP.- M.Desainte-CatherineM.GeorgsdottirA.GuillouK.KurtagG.MouchiroudC.StormeM.WojtczukA.ZenasniF. (2013). Creativity as action: Findings from five creative domains. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, Article 176. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00176
28.
GleasonT. (2013). Imaginary relationships. In TaylorM. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the development of imagination (pp. 251–271). Oxford University Press.
29.
GöncüA. (1987). Toward an interactional model of developmental changes in social pretend play. In KatzL. (Ed.), Current topics in early childhood education (Vol. 7, pp. 108–125). Ablex.
GuilfordJ. P. (1968). The nature of human intelligence. McGraw-Hill.
32.
HarrisP. L. (2000). The work of the imagination. Blackwell.
33.
IsenA.DaubmanK.NowickiG. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(6), 1122–1131. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1122
34.
LewisD. (1973). Counterfactuals. Blackwell.
35.
LiebermanJ. N. (1977). Playfulness: Its relationship to imagination and creativity. Academic Press.
MandlerJ. M. (2004). The foundations of mind: Origins of conceptual thought. Oxford University Press.
39.
NelsonK. (1986). Event knowledge: Structure and function in development. Lawrence Erlbaum.
40.
NelsonK. (2007). Young minds in social worlds: Experience, meaning, and memory. Harvard University Press.
41.
NielsenM. (2012). Imitation, pretend play, and childhood: Essential elements in the evolution of human culture?Journal of Comparative Psychology, 126(2), 170–181. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025168
42.
PaleyV. G. (2005). A child’s work: The importance of fantasy play. University of Chicago Press.
43.
PeplerD. J.RossH. S. (1981). The effects of play on convergent and divergent problem solving. Child Development, 52(4), 1202–1210. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129507
44.
PiagetJ. (1962). Play, dreams and imitation. The Norton Library. (Original work published 1923)
45.
PicciutoE.CarruthersP. (2014). The origins of creativity. In PaulE.KaufmanS. (Eds.), The philosophy of creativity: New essays (pp. 199–223). Oxford University Press.
46.
PowerT. G. (2000). Play and exploration in children and animals. Lawrence Erlbaum.
47.
Root-BernsteinM. M. (2014). The creation of imaginary worlds. In TaylorM. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the development of imagination (pp. 417–437). Oxford University Press.
48.
RothbartM.PosnerM. (2001). Mechanism and variation in the development of attentional networks. In NelsonC.Luciana (Eds.), Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp. 353–363). MIT Press.
49.
RucińskaZ. (2016). Enactive mechanism of make-belief games. In TurnerP. (Ed.), Digital make-believe (pp. 141–160). Springer International.
50.
RucińskaZ. (2017). The role of affordances in pretend play. In DurtC.FuchsT.TewesC. (Eds.), Embodiment, enaction, and culture: Investigating the constitution of the shared world (pp. 257–278). MIT Press.
51.
RuffH. A.CapozzoliM. C. (2003). Development of attention and distractibility in the first 4 years of life. Developmental Psychology, 39(5), 877–890. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.39.5.877
RussS. W. (2004). Play in child development and psychotherapy: Toward empirically supported practice. Lawrence Erlbaum.
56.
RussS. W. (2014). Pretend play in childhood: Foundation of adult creativity. American Psychological Association.
57.
RussS. W. (2016). Pretend play: Antecedent of adult creativity. In BarbotB. (Ed.), Perspectives on creativity development: New directions for child and adolescent development (pp. 21–32). John Wiley & Sons.
58.
RussS. W.RobinsA. L.ChristianoB. A. (1999). Pretend play: Longitudinal prediction of creativity and affect in fantasy in children. Creativity Research Journal, 12(2), 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1202_5
59.
RussS. W.WallaceC. (2013). Pretend play and creative processes. American Journal of Play, 6(1), 136–148.
60.
SarachoO. (2002). Young children’s creativity and pretend play. Early Child Development and Care, 172(5), 431–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430214553
61.
SingerD. GSingerJ. L. (1990). The house of make-believe: Children’s play and the developing imagination. Harvard University Press.
62.
Sutton-SmithB. (1968). Novel responses to toys. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 14(2), 151–158.
63.
SzokolszkyA. (2006). Pretend object play—Symbolic or functional? In CostallA.DreierO. (Eds.), Doing things with things: The design and use of everyday objects (pp. 67–85). Ashgate.
64.
TaylorM. (1999). Imaginary companions and the children who create them. Oxford University Press.
WeisbergD. S.GopnikA. (2013). Pretense, counterfactuals, and Bayesian causal models: Why what is not real really matters. Cognitive Science, 37(7), 1368–1381. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12069
72.
ZabelinaD.SaportaA.BeemanM. (2016). Flexible or leaky attention in creative people? Distinct patterns of attention for different types of creative thinking. Memory & Cognition, 44(3), 488–498. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-015-0569-4
