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Understanding Children's Concepts of Invisibility: Development from Ages 3 to 7

This study explores how children's understanding of invisibility evolves from ages 3 to 7. By age 3, they grasp basic concepts of appearance versus reality, but significant development occurs up to age 7. The research highlights that children initially struggle to differentiate between visible and invisible real entities, such as germs, and fantastical entities. By age 5, they start recognizing the causal role of invisible beings, and by age 7, they differentiate between types of invisibility, influenced by their cognitive ability to distinguish reality from pretense.

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Understanding Children's Concepts of Invisibility: Development from Ages 3 to 7

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  1. Invisibility • Fantasy-Reality distinction • Present by age 3 • (Woolley, 1997) • Develops significantly between ages 3 and 7 • (Sharon & Woolley, 2004; Woolley & VanReet, 2006) • Appearance-Reality distinction • Present by age 3 • (Woolley & Wellman, 1990) • Develops significantly between ages 3 and 7 • (Flavell, Green, & Flavell, 1996; Flavell, Flavell, & Green, 1997; Moll & Tomasello, 2012)

  2. Previous findingsInvisible real entities • Mental states • People have mental states even though one cannot see them (Wellman & Estes, 1989) • Germs • Germs can cause disease, even though they can’t be seen (Kalish, 1996) • Invisible particles • Sugar dissolved in water is still there even though one cannot see it (Au, Sidle, & Rollins, 1993; Rosen & Rozin, 1993)

  3. Previous findingsInvisible not-real entities • By age 4 children think differently about invisible real entities like germs and fantastical entities (some of which are invisible; Harris, et al., 2006) • Children younger than 5 do not differentiate invisible agents from absent humans (Kiessling, Russell, Whitehouse, & Perner, 2013) • By age 5 children understand that events can be caused by invisible beings (Bering & Parker, 2006)

  4. Hypotheses • Children may experience difficulty reasoning about invisibility • They may expect reality and visibility to co-occur • There may be development in children’s understanding of difference senses of invisibility • Some things are un-seeable because they are too small, whereas other things are invisible by definition or by nature • Children’s understanding of invisibility may be related to their ability to make the appearance-reality distinction

  5. Items

  6. Questions • Visibility question: “Can you see X with your eyes or can you not see it?” • Reality question: “What do you think, is X real or pretend?” • If “can’t see”: • Why can’t you see X? • Can scientists (or other experts) see X? • If we had a microscope/magnifying glass, could we see X? • If we had a lot of light, could we see X?

  7. Visibility Responses

  8. Reality Status Judgments

  9. Visibility-Reality Performance

  10. Children’s explanations for why they couldn’t see invisible entities • Invisibility • Explicit use of the word “invisible” • Physical • Reference to a physical property or location • Human production/sense • Reference to human ability or lack thereof • Reality status • Appealed to the real or pretend nature of the entity

  11. Children’s explanations

  12. Expert/technology questions:Affirmative responses to whether there was some way to see invisible entities • Germs: Almost all children (86-100%). • Air: 40% of 3-year-olds, 60% of 5-year-olds, and 24% of 7-year-olds. • Songs: 75% of 3-year-olds, 58% of 5-year-olds, and no 7-year-olds. • Not-real entities: 88% of 3-year-olds, 62% of 5-year-olds, and 18% of 7-year-olds.

  13. Microscope question

  14. Conclusions • Children’s concepts of visibility and reality status are intertwined. • Children’s ability to concurrently maintain representations of both visibility and reality status develops between 3 and 7 and is related to their ability to make the AR distinction. • By age 5, children are beginning to think about how invisible real and not-real entities differ. • By age 7, children recognize two different types of invisibility.

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