ERIC Number: EJ1055800
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
Explicit Theory of Mind Is Even More Unified than Previously Assumed: Belief Ascription and Understanding Aspectuality Emerge Together in Development
Rakoczy, Hannes; Bergfeld, Delia; Schwarz, Ina; Fizke, Ella
Child Development, v86 n2 p486-502 Mar-Apr 2015
Existing evidence suggests that children, when they first pass standard theory-of-mind tasks, still fail to understand the essential aspectuality of beliefs and other propositional attitudes: such attitudes refer to objects only under specific aspects. Oedipus, for example, believes Yocaste (his mother) is beautiful, but this does not imply that he believes his mother is beautiful. In three experiments, 3- to 6-year-olds' (N = 119) understanding of aspectuality was tested with a novel, radically simplified task. In contrast to all previous findings, this task was as difficult as and highly correlated with a standard false belief task. This suggests that a conceptual capacity more unified than previously assumed emerges around ages 4-5, a full-fledged metarepresentational scheme of propositional attitudes.
Descriptors: Theory of Mind, Beliefs, Young Children, Educational Experiments, Task Analysis, Difficulty Level, Cognitive Processes, Concept Formation, Cognitive Development, Childhood Attitudes, Early Childhood Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A