Imagination and the generation of new ideas
A variety of theories have been put forth to explain the function of imagination, most notably that imagination engages and develops children's theory of mind and counterfactual reasoning. Here, we propose that a primary role for imagination is as a cognitive mechanism for efficiently generatin...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Elsevier
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109896 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1767-3247 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 |
| _version_ | 1826196719077949440 |
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| author | Sheskin, Mark Magid, Rachel Schulz, Laura E |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Sheskin, Mark Magid, Rachel Schulz, Laura E |
| author_sort | Sheskin, Mark |
| collection | MIT |
| description | A variety of theories have been put forth to explain the function of imagination, most notably that imagination engages and develops children's theory of mind and counterfactual reasoning. Here, we propose that a primary role for imagination is as a cognitive mechanism for efficiently generating new ideas without observing new evidence. Learners must generate hypotheses before they can assess the truth of these hypotheses. Given infinite possibilities, how do learners constrain the process of hypothesis generation? We suggest that learners represent abstract criteria for the solution to a problem and generate solutions that, if true, would solve the problem. As a preliminary test of this idea, we show that, in the absence of any fact of the matter (i.e., when neither prior knowledge nor statistical data distinguishes competing hypotheses), 4–6-year-olds (mean: 63 months) systematically converge on solutions to problems, consistent with an ability to imagine the abstract properties of causal problems and their solutions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:36:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109896 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:36:44Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1098962022-09-30T21:46:47Z Imagination and the generation of new ideas Sheskin, Mark Magid, Rachel Schulz, Laura E Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Magid, Rachel Schulz, Laura E A variety of theories have been put forth to explain the function of imagination, most notably that imagination engages and develops children's theory of mind and counterfactual reasoning. Here, we propose that a primary role for imagination is as a cognitive mechanism for efficiently generating new ideas without observing new evidence. Learners must generate hypotheses before they can assess the truth of these hypotheses. Given infinite possibilities, how do learners constrain the process of hypothesis generation? We suggest that learners represent abstract criteria for the solution to a problem and generate solutions that, if true, would solve the problem. As a preliminary test of this idea, we show that, in the absence of any fact of the matter (i.e., when neither prior knowledge nor statistical data distinguishes competing hypotheses), 4–6-year-olds (mean: 63 months) systematically converge on solutions to problems, consistent with an ability to imagine the abstract properties of causal problems and their solutions. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (0744213) 2017-06-15T18:02:24Z 2017-06-15T18:02:24Z 2015-01 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0885-2014 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109896 Magid, Rachel W.; Sheskin, Mark and Schulz, Laura E. “Imagination and the Generation of New Ideas.” Cognitive Development 34 (April 2015): 99–110 © 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1767-3247 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2014.12.008 Cognitive Development Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier MIT Web Domain |
| spellingShingle | Sheskin, Mark Magid, Rachel Schulz, Laura E Imagination and the generation of new ideas |
| title | Imagination and the generation of new ideas |
| title_full | Imagination and the generation of new ideas |
| title_fullStr | Imagination and the generation of new ideas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Imagination and the generation of new ideas |
| title_short | Imagination and the generation of new ideas |
| title_sort | imagination and the generation of new ideas |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109896 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1767-3247 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2981-8039 |
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