1. Week of November 21, 2001
In this hour, we explore Imagination. A great new job, a bigger home, a romantic
evening. We all conjure up possibilities in our minds. But just what is
imagination? Guests include Dr. Jerome Singer, a professor of psychology at
Yale University and one of the pioneers in the study of imagination; Dr. Alan
Leslie, professor of psychology and director of the Cognitive Development
Laboratory at Rutgers University; Dr. Paul Harris, developmental psychologist
and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of The
Work of the Imagination; Dr. Marjorie Taylor, professor of psychology at the
University of Oregon and author of Imaginary Companions and the Children Who
Create Them; and children's book writer and artist Maira Kalman.
Host Dr. Fred Goodwin begins with an essay in which he says that if the
philosopher Descartes were around today and aware of modern psychology and
neuroscience, he might observe not "I think, therefore I am," but rather "I
imagine, therefore I am." Dr. Goodwin says imagining is the one type of thought
that appears to be uniquely human. Imagination may be triggered by what we're
perceiving at a given moment, but it goes way beyond that. It enables us to arrive
at generalizations, to plan ahead, to create, even to form an empathetic
understanding of others.
Next, we hear from kindergarten teacher Andy Baumgartner from Augusta,
Georgia. He's been teaching children for twenty-six years, and in 1999 he won
the National Teacher of the Year award -- only the second kindergarten teacher
ever to receive the honor. He tells us how he fuels his students' imaginations
through lots of conversation, music, dress-up games, puppets, and great books.
He cautions that we need to nurture and build children's imaginations or they
won't grow into adults who can think creatively about how to solve the world's
problems.
Then, Dr. Goodwin is joined by Dr. Jerome L. Singer and Dr. Alan
Leslie, both of whom study children's pretend play. Dr. Singer is one of the
pioneers in the study of imagination; he's a professor of psychology at Yale
University and the author of numerous books, including Make-Believe: Games
and Activities for Imaginative Play. Dr. Leslie is a professor of psychology and
director of the Cognitive Development Laboratory at Rutgers University.
Dr. Singer begins by defining imagination as a basic human capacity to create
images, fantasies and thoughts not in the immediate environment. Dr. Leslie
adds that he studies children's pretend play because it gives clues to the basic
architecture of the mind, since it is an early manifestation of our ability to
transcend thinking about the world in the here and now and instead think about
the world as it might be.
Children generally begin pretend play at around 18 to 24 months. As soon as
they begin pretending, Dr. Leslie says, they are also able to recognize pretending
in others. He believes this is an early indication that children have a theory of
mind, that is the ability to understand mental states in other people.
Dr. Singer says that children who engage in imaginative play show a richer, more
varied vocabulary, an increased ability to show empathy for others, and an

2. increased ability to entertain themselves. He adds that even children who engage
in aggressive imaginative play are less likely to be aggressive because, he
speculates, they are better able to understand and modulate the potential harm
of aggression.
Dr. Leslie says that in adults, pretending can be seen in behaviors such as lying
and sarcasm, as well as in some of the manipulation of people's mental states
evident in politics and advertising. Dr. Singer says he prefers to focus on the
positive aspects of imagination. He wishes people would make fuller use of the
possibilities of imagination, not only in passing time when waiting for a bus or
train, but in visualizing positive outcomes for things like job interviews or
meetings.
To contact Dr. Singer, please write to: Dr. Jerome L. Singer, Professor,
Department of Psychology, Yale University, Box 208205, New Haven, CT 065208205. Or visit www.yale.edu.
To contact Dr. Leslie, please write to: Dr. Alan Leslie, Director, Cognitive
Development Laboratory, Rutgers University, 152 Frelinghuysen Road,
Busch Campus, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Or visit http://ruccs.rutgers.edu.
After a short break, we hear from James Gwertzman, President of a new
video game studio called Escape Factory. As he tells us, the key ingredient in
any good game is imagination - both the creator and the player need to feel
inspired. He sees the game industry being now where the film industry was in the
early 1900s -- the craft is beginning to be dominated by artists rather than
technicians and engineers. He believes games, far from being passive or
mindless entertainment, must strive to elevate wonder and excitement in
children.
To learn more about Escape Factory, visit www.escapefactory.com.
Next, Dr. Goodwin interviews Dr. Paul Harris and Dr. Marjorie Taylor,
who discuss the role of imagination in our lives. Developmental psychologist Dr.
Paul Harris is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His most
recent book is The Work of the Imagination. Dr. Marjorie Taylor is professor of
psychology at the University of Oregon and the author of Imaginary Companions
and the Children Who Create Them.
Dr. Harris begins by saying that he believes that in studying the more dazzling
aspects of imagination, many researchers have overlooked its more workaday
functions, such as allowing us to plan for the future and empathize with others.
Dr. Taylor then begins a discussion of children's imaginary companions. She
says that although parents often worry about their kids' having imaginary friends,
most of the time it's just an elaborate form of play that children use to have fun
and solve simple problems, such as fear of the dark. They can also use
imaginary companions to share a secret, communicate worries or concerns to
their parents (i.e. "My imaginary friend Dipper is afraid he'll go down the drain.")
or place blame (i.e. "I didn't do it. Dipper did."). She says there is a great variety
in children's imaginary friends -- she's heard of everything from little boys and
girls to ghosts, monsters, deer, mice, or dolphins. Although people used to think
children gave up their imaginary friends around age 6, when they entered school
and found more real friends, her team has observed kids as old as twelve with

3. imaginary friends. She's also exploring whether there is a similar kind of
imaginary companionship at work in teenagers who idolize a movie or music star
and imagine conversations with that person.
She says she sees an adult analog of imaginary companionship in the
relationship fiction writers have with their characters. Writers often speak about
their characters stepping out of the novel and telling them what to write. They say
it can be spooky, particularly when they feel the character is more witty or clever
than they are. Both adults and children do realize, however, that the companions
or characters are not in any sense real.
Dr. Harris says the writer's experience described by Dr. Taylor is not so different
from the reader's experience. Whenever we read fiction, we identify with
characters and become absorbed in the experience on a deep, emotional level.
We feel real emotion even though we know the characters themselves are not
real.
To contact Dr. Harris, please write to: Dr. Paul Harris, Professor of Education,
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Larsen 506, Cambridge, MA 02138. Or
visit www.gse.harvard.edu.
To contact Dr. Taylor, please write to: Dr. Marjorie Taylor, Professor, Department
of Psychology, University of Oregon - Eugene, 395 Straub Hall, Eugene OR
97403-5225. Or visit www.uoregon.edu.
Click here to order "Imaginary Companions And The Children Who Create Them"
by Marjorie Taylor at BarnesandNobles.com.
Then, The Infinite Mind's Marit Haahr interviews children's book writer and
artist Maira Kalman. Ms. Kalman has written and illustrated almost a dozen
children's books, including the acclaimed Max series, which follows the
adventures of the poet dog Max Stravinsky, as he travels from Paris to Hollywood
to India. She has designed fabrics for Isaac Mizrahi and sets for the Mark Morris
Dance Company, as well as drawn covers for the New Yorker Magazine. As if all
that weren't enough, she also runs M & Company, a multidisciplinary design
studio founded with her late husband Tibor Kalman.
Ms. Kalman says she views imagination as the freedom to allow thoughts to take
their illogical course. Her wild imagination stems from her ability to stay curious
and open to looking at the world around her, as a child would; she finds
inspiration in everything from music to architecture to dogs to shoes. She
describes her visual style as a narrative, naive, surreal description of the world in
its absurdity -- Matisse meets a five-year old.
To contact Ms. Kalman, please write to: Maira Kalman, c/o Audra Boltion, Senior
Publicist, Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 345 Hudson Street, 15th
Floor, New York, NY 10014-3657.