Nate Rott

Andrews in the UK, found a series of studies from the 1980s that did just that, by having a group of kids participate in pretend tea parties.

By setting up a series of very sterile-looking tea parties and recording videos of the sessions.

Now, before we start pouring any imaginary juice, let's hold onto our teacups for a second.

I think it's worth taking a minute to explain the significance of being able to imagine things that aren't real.

In other words, to play pretend.

It's a super helpful cognitive ability.

Take a kid playing house.

Kristen Andrews is a philosophy professor at the City University of New York and at York University in Toronto.

She focuses on animal minds, too.

As a philosopher with a wicked cool title, Kristen spends a lot of time thinking about the abilities of the mind.

And she says imagination is something that we grown-ups use all the time, too.

Prudent, right?

It's the same thing we do when we plan a summer vacation, when we decide what kind of gift to buy a loved one, when we stop and put ourselves in another person's shoes.

Making them, and really all of us, because we all do this, more efficient with our time.

Yeah, that's right.

Daydreaming can save you time.

But don't zone out yet.

Since we're already back on the topic of scientists and experiments, let's rejoin that imaginary tea party.

In the first video of Chris's experiment, Kanzi is sitting in an enclosure.

The researcher, or partner as Chris calls him, sits just on the other side with a wooden table in between.