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Accelerating the Development of Second‐Order False Belief Reasoning: A Training Study With Different Feedback Methods
Author(s) -
Arslan Burcu,
Verbrugge Rineke,
Taatgen Niels,
Hollebrandse Bart
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13186
Subject(s) - psychology , session (web analytics) , false belief , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , theory of mind , cognition , neuroscience , world wide web , computer science
One‐hundred‐six 5‐year‐olds’ ( M age = 5;6; SD = 0.40) were trained with second‐order false belief tasks in one of the following conditions: (a) feedback with explanation ; (b) feedback without explanation; (c) no feedback ; (d) active control . The results showed that there were significant improvements in children's scores from pretest to posttest in the three experimental conditions even when children's age, verbal abilities, or working memory scores were controlled for. The training effect was stable at a follow‐up session 4 months after the pretest. Overall, our results suggest that 5‐year‐olds’ failures in second‐order false belief tasks are due to lack of experience and that they can be helped over the threshold by exposure to many stories involving second‐order false belief reasoning, including why questions.