Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 2 of Cognitive Development

The preoperational stage, the second of Jean Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, spans approximately ages 2 to 7 and is characterized by the emergence of symbolic thinking. During this stage, children use language, images, and symbols to represent objects and concepts, enabling them to engage in imaginative and pretend play. This symbolic thinking supports children's ability to perform make-believe actions, such as imagining a broom as a horse or their hand as a phone, blending...
Social Foundations of Self I: Play and Game01:24

Social Foundations of Self I: Play and Game

The development of self in children is deeply rooted in social interactions, mainly through stages of play and structured games. These stages, outlined by sociologist George Herbert Mead, illustrate how children progressively learn to understand and adopt social roles, forming a cohesive sense of self.The Play Stage: Imitation and Simple Role-TakingIn the early years of childhood, the play stage is characterized by imitative behavior, where children engage in role-playing based on familiar...
Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development01:17

Piaget's Stage 3 of Cognitive Development

During Piaget's concrete operational stage, from ages 7 to 11, children exhibit a marked increase in logical thinking skills, specifically in relation to tangible, real-world events. This stage is characterized by the development of several essential cognitive concepts, including conservation, reversibility, and classification, all of which support the child's evolving capacity for structured thought.
Conservation and Constancy of Quantity
A significant cognitive milestone in the concrete...
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood01:25

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development from Childhood into Adulthood

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development emphasizes the role of thinking in a child's learning process, suggesting that children are naturally curious about their environment. His approach to development is discontinuous, proposing that cognitive abilities progress through distinct stages, each with unique characteristics. Central to Piaget's theory is schemata—mental structures that allow individuals to understand and interpret the world.
Schemata: Building Blocks of Knowledge
Schemata...
Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development01:19

Piaget's Stage 4 of Cognitive Development

The formal operational stage, as described in Piaget's cognitive development theory, begins around age 11 and extends into adulthood. It marks the emergence of advanced cognitive abilities that differentiate adolescent and adult thinking from those of younger children. This stage is characterized by abstract reasoning, hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and a more complex understanding of self and others.
Abstract Reasoning and Hypothetical-Deductive Thinking
Unlike the concrete operational...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Leveraging community science to encourage a more inclusive and culturally representative developmental science.

The British journal of developmental psychology·2026
Same author

Against frictionless AI.

Communications psychology·2026
Same author

Becoming Speciesist: How Children and Adults Differ in Valuing Animals by Species and Cognitive Capacity.

Personality & social psychology bulletin·2025
Same author

Possible reasons for reductive seductions: A reply to Wilson et al.

Cognition·2024
Same author

Developmental changes in the perceived moral standing of robots.

Cognition·2024
Same author

Cross-cultural conceptions of third-party intervention across childhood.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2024
Same journal

Effects of Children's Video Gaming Experience on Chinese Orthographic Processing and Its Neural Mechanisms.

Developmental science·2026
Same journal

The Kia Tīmata Pai Randomized Controlled Trial: ENRICH Early Childhood Teacher Training Improves Toddlers' Oral Language and Self-Regulation.

Developmental science·2026
Same journal

Deaf Children's Use of Mutual Exclusivity and Eye Gaze to Determine Word Meanings in American Sign Language.

Developmental science·2026
Same journal

Adolescents and Adults Use Different Facial Movements and Vocal Cues to Express Emotions.

Developmental science·2026
Same journal

Decoding Preschool Social Dynamics: Automated Tracking of Spatial and Temporal Patterns to Investigate Social Interactions and Relationships in Peer Groups.

Developmental science·2026
Same journal

Early Life Stress Affects Human Decision Making by Increasing Expectations of Volatility.

Developmental science·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children
07:01

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Published on: March 1, 2019

Young children separate multiple pretend worlds.

Deena Skolnick Weisberg1, Paul Bloom

  • 1Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA. deenasw@ruccs.rutgers.edu

Developmental Science
|August 26, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Young children psychologically separate their pretend game worlds. Even when explicitly offered, 3- and 4-year-olds avoid using objects from one pretend game in another, indicating distinct world separation.

More Related Videos

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime
07:36

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

Published on: May 3, 2016

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children
07:01

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Self-distancing in Young Children

Published on: March 1, 2019

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime
07:36

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime

Published on: May 3, 2016

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Child Psychology
  • Imagination Studies

Background:

  • Adults maintain distinct properties for their created fictional worlds.
  • The psychological separation of young children's pretend game worlds is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether young children keep their pretend game worlds psychologically separate.
  • To determine if children aged 3-4 years transfer objects between distinct pretend play scenarios.

Main Methods:

  • Two simultaneous pretend games were established with colored blocks assigned pretend identities.
  • Children were prompted to use an object from one game within the other, with alternatives highlighted.
  • A sequential presentation of two game worlds was also tested in a subsequent study.

Main Results:

  • Children aged 3-4 years showed reluctance to move pretend objects between the two distinct game worlds.
  • This reluctance persisted even when the alternative object was explicitly presented as an option.
  • The same effect was observed when the game worlds were presented sequentially, not simultaneously.

Conclusions:

  • Young children maintain psychological separation between multiple pretend game worlds.
  • This suggests a fundamental cognitive mechanism for compartmentalizing imagined realities from an early age.