Examples of iICs and POs in China and the UK.

Although imaginary companions are created by children and sometimes adults around the world, the prevalence of this play behaviour varies. Cross-nationally, imaginary companions are reported more frequently in Western countries. These imaginary entities have been speculated to be similar to hallucination-like-experiences, based on evidence for elevated top-down auditory processing in children who report them. Face pareidolia tasks engage visual top-down processing, and performance on them does not tend to vary across cultures. This study asked if: 1) there would be cross-national differences in imaginary companion creation in childhood and adulthood between Chinese and British adults, 2) whether those creating imaginary companions would see more face pareidolia and 3) if there would be cross-national differences in face pareidolia. 291 participants (185 Chinese) completed a questionnaire on their imagination followed by a face pareidolia task consisting of 36 image trials (24 containing face pareidolia). Results showed that including all participants (Chinese and British) 11% of the adults currently had an imaginary companion. Chinese adults were significantly less likely than British adults to report a childhood, but not adulthood, imaginary companion. There were significantly more reports of face pareidolia from participants with a current imaginary companion, but not those who remembered a companion in childhood. The pareidolia hits did not differ between country, but false alarms were experienced significantly more by the Chinese participants. Taken together, the results provide more information around imaginary companion creation in China and the UK as well as the role top-down processing may play in imaginary companion interactions.尽管全球范围内儿童乃至部分成人都会创造出想象同伴（imaginary companion），但这类假想游戏行为的流行程度存在差异。跨国研究显示，西方国家报告的想象同伴出现频率更高。有研究基于报告拥有想象同伴的儿童存在自上而下听觉加工（top-down processing）增强的证据，推测这类假想实体与类幻觉体验具有相似性。面孔空想性错视（face pareidolia）任务会激活视觉自上而下加工，且该任务的表现跨文化差异并不显著。本研究旨在探讨三个核心问题：1）中国与英国成年人在童年及成年时期的想象同伴创建情况是否存在跨国差异；2）拥有想象同伴的个体是否表现出更强的面孔空想性错视；3）面孔空想性错视是否存在跨国差异。本研究共招募291名参与者（其中185名为中国籍成年人），要求其完成一项关于想象力的调查问卷，随后完成包含36张图片试次的面孔空想性错视任务，其中24张图片包含面孔空想性错视刺激。结果显示，在所有参与者（中国及英国籍）中，11%的成年人当前拥有想象同伴。中国成年人报告童年时期拥有想象同伴的比例显著低于英国成年人，但二者成年时期拥有想象同伴的比例并无显著差异。当前拥有想象同伴的参与者报告的面孔空想性错视击中率显著更高，但童年时期曾拥有想象同伴的个体则未表现出这一特征。各国参与者的面孔空想性错视击中率无显著差异，但中国参与者的虚报率显著更高。综上，本研究结果为中英两国的想象同伴创建情况，以及自上而下加工在想象同伴互动中可能发挥的作用提供了更多实证依据。