Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Cogn Sci. 2022 Jul;13(4):e1603. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1603. Epub 2022 May 27.
Imagination is a cognitive process used to generate new ideas from old, not just in the service of creativity and fantasy, but also in our ordinary thoughts about alternatives to current reality. In this article, I argue for the central function of imagination in the development of social cognition in infancy and childhood. In Section 1, I review a work showing that even in the first year of life, social cognition can be viewed through a nascent ability to imagine the physical possibilities and physical limits on action. In Section 2, I discuss how imagination of what should happen is appropriately constrained by what can happen, and how this influences children's moral evaluations. In the final section, I suggest developmental changes in imagination-especially the ability to imagine improbable events-may have implications for social inference, leading children to learn that inner motives can conflict. These examples point to a flexible and domain-general process that operates on knowledge to make social meaning. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Development and Aging Cognitive Biology > Cognitive Development Philosophy > Knowledge and Belief.
想象是一种认知过程，用于从旧的中生成新的想法，不仅是为了创造力和幻想服务，也为了我们对当前现实的替代方案的普通思考。在本文中，我主张想象在婴儿期和儿童期社会认知发展中的核心作用。在第 1 节中，我回顾了一项研究，该研究表明，即使在生命的第一年，社会认知也可以通过一种新生的能力来观察，即想象物理可能性和行动的物理限制。在第 2 节中，我讨论了应该发生的事情的想象如何被可能发生的事情所适当限制，以及这如何影响儿童的道德评价。在最后一节中，我提出想象的发展变化——特别是想象不可能事件的能力——可能对社会推理有影响，导致儿童了解到内在动机可能会发生冲突。这些例子指向了一个灵活的、领域通用的过程，它在知识的基础上发挥作用，从而产生社会意义。本文属于以下类别：心理学 > 发展与衰老认知生物学 > 认知发展哲学 > 知识与信念。
