Title: Paracosms: The Imaginary Worlds of Middle Childhood
Abstract: The invention of imaginary worlds (“paracosms”) is a creative activity of middle childhood that has previously been investigated primarily with retrospective adult reports and biographical accounts. In descriptions collected from 8‐ to 12‐year‐old children, the prevalence was 16.9% in Study 1 ( n = 77) and 17.4% in Study 2 ( n = 92). Children with and without paracosms did not differ in verbal comprehension, divergent thinking (Studies 1 and 2) or working memory (Study 2). However, children with paracosms had more difficulty with inhibitory control (Study 2) and had higher creativity scores on a story‐telling task (Studies 1 and 2). Paracosms provided a vehicle for stories associated with imaginary companions and/or for developing complex narratives alone or with friends.
Publication Year: 2018
Publication Date: 2018-10-15
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 49
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