Imaginary Companions in Childhood: Relations to Imagination Skills and Autobiographical Memory in Adults

Autor/inn/en	Firth, Lucy; Alderson-Day, Ben; Woods, Natalie; Fernyhough, Charles
Titel	Imaginary Companions in Childhood: Relations to Imagination Skills and Autobiographical Memory in Adults
Quelle	In: Creativity Research Journal, 27 (2015) 4, S.308-313 (6 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1040-0419
DOI	10.1080/10400419.2015.1087240
Schlagwörter	Imagination; Creativity; Children; Memory; Adults; Hypothesis Testing; Recall (Psychology); Vignettes; Questionnaires; Scores; Statistical Analysis; Correlation; College Students + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Kreativität; Child; Kind; Kinder; Gedächtnis; Hypothesenprüfung; Hypothesentest; Abberufung; Fragebogen; Statistische Analyse; Korrelation; Collegestudent
Abstract	The presence of a childhood imaginary companion (IC) has been proposed to reflect heightened imaginative abilities. This study hypothesized that adults who reported having a childhood IC would score higher on a task requiring the imaginative construction of visual scenes. Additionally, it was proposed that individuals who produced more vivid and detailed scenes would also report richer autobiographical memories, due to a shared reliance on imaginative abilities in construction and recollection. Sixty participants (20 with an IC), completed an adapted scene construction procedure and an autobiographical memory questionnaire. Participants reporting a childhood IC scored significantly higher on scene construction and rated themselves as more imaginative. Scene construction scores were also moderately related to the richness of autobiographical memories, although this was almost entirely due to scores on the thought/emotion/action component of scene construction. Autobiographical memory was unrelated to the presence of an IC. Implications for overlapping and dissociable aspects of imagination and memory are discussed. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01