Development of the appearance-reality representation between 3 and 5 years: A matter of abstraction and integration of perceptual and functional properties of the object?

Our research focuses on the development of representations of the perceptual and functional properties of objects in appearance-reality tasks solved by 64 children aged 3 to 5 years. The materials of the selected tasks included various ambiguous objects: realistic, symbolic, and fictional (in an animated cartoon). This enabled us to vary the proximity between the function evoked by the appearance of the object and the function related to its reality. The study aimed to assess the child’s capacity to alter their representation of the object, with an approach equally balanced between assessment of the ability to return from reality to appearance after demonstration of a real property, and ability to return from appearance to reality following demonstration of a fictitious property. Results show, for the 3-year-olds, a preponderance of “phenomenalist errors” for the symbolic objects and for the cartoon task, but a preponderance of “realist errors” for the realistic objects. The responses of 4-year-olds were markedly centered on functional properties, in all tasks. It was only the 5-year-old children who managed to resolve the problem of the identity of the object and could easily alter their representation of it. The results are discussed with an emphasis on the theory of H. Wallon.