Children's Theory of Mind: Understanding of Desire, Belief and Emotion with Social Referents |
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Authors: | Leanh Nguyen & Douglas Frye |
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Institution: | New York University,;University of Pennsylvania |
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Abstract: | Preschooler's understanding of belief, desire, and emotion was assessed in a new false belief task that explored childen's mental state reasoning about social situations. The social analog task presented a change in a partner's play activity rather than a change in the location of a physical object. Two main differences from the usual pattern of theory of mind results were obtained. Five-year-olds had more difficulty understanding a false belief about another's current social activity compared to a false belief about a physical situation. The understanding of desire exhibited a 3- to 5-year age change that may have been shown because the social situation involved conflicting desires. When there was a conflict, the younger children tended to disregard the stated desire and exhibited 'social opportunism' by misattributing desires to permit a social interaction. The new results give a more varied picture of the development of theory of mind, and argue for expanding its study into social frames of reference. |
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Keywords: | Mental states reasoning social understanding theory of mind |
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