Four-year-old Marly is playing with her toy cars. She favors the blue car, but plays with the green car for at least a few minutes. She says, "I don't want the green one to get lonely." This is an example of

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This is an example of animistic thinking, where a child may attribute human-like qualities to inanimate objects. In this case, Marly is concerned about the green car feeling lonely. Dual representation refers to seeing an object in two ways at once (as a symbol and as a real object), egocentrism refers to the inability to take another person's perspective, and centration refers to the tendency to focus on one aspect of a situation while ignoring others. None of those concepts apply to this situation.

Four-Year-Old Marly Is Playing with Her Toy Cars