Fictional stories can affect many aspects of children’s behavior and cognition, yet little is known about how they might help or hinder children’s executive function skills. The current study investigated the role of story content (fantasy or reality) and mode of engagement with the story (pretense or a non-pretense control) on children’s inhibitory control, an important component of early executive function. A total of 60 3-year-olds were randomly assigned to hear a fantastical or realistic story and were encouraged to engage in either pretense or a non-pretense activity related to the story. They then completed the Less Is More task of inhibitory control. Story content had no impact on children’s inhibitory control; children performed equally well after hearing a fantastical or realistic story. However, children who engaged in story-related pretend play showed greater inhibitory control than those who engaged in a non-pretense activity. We found no interaction between story content and play engagement type. These results held when controlling for baseline inhibitory control, receptive vocabulary, age, gender, affect, and propensity toward pretense. Therefore, mode of play engagement with a story was more important in promoting children’s inhibitory control skills than the degree of realism in the story.

虚构故事可以影响儿童行为和认知的许多方面，但人们对它们如何帮助或阻碍儿童的执行功能技能知之甚少。目前的研究调查了故事内容（幻想或现实）和故事参与方式（假装或非假装控制）对儿童抑制控制的作用，这是早期执行功能的重要组成部分。共有 60 名 3 岁儿童被随机分配听一个奇幻或现实的故事，并被鼓励从事与故事相关的假装或非假装活动。然后他们完成了抑制控制的“少即是多”任务。故事内容对儿童的抑制控制没有影响；孩子们在听到奇幻或现实的故事后表现同样出色。然而，参与与故事相关的假装游戏的儿童比从事非假装活动的儿童表现出更强的抑制控制能力。我们发现故事内容和游戏参与类型之间没有互动。在控制基线抑制控制、接受词汇、年龄、性别、情感和伪装倾向时，这些结果保持不变。因此，与故事互动的游戏模式对促进儿童的抑制控制能力比故事的真实程度更重要。