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Young Children's Understanding of Different Types of Beliefs
Author(s) -
Flavell John H.,
Mumme Donna L.,
Green Frances L.,
Flavell Eleanor R.
Publication year - 1992
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/j.1467-8624.1992.tb01675.x
Subject(s) - psychology , morality , developmental psychology , value (mathematics) , social psychology , theory of mind , convention , moral development , contrast (vision) , property (philosophy) , cognition , epistemology , social science , philosophy , machine learning , neuroscience , sociology , artificial intelligence , computer science
The purpose of this investigation was to see whether children's understandings of different types of beliefs develop concurrently. Children of 3, 4, and 5 years of age were told or shown that child story characters held beliefs different from their own or from one another, not only concerning matters of physical fact (“false beliefs”), but also concerning morality, social convention, value, and ownership of property. In contrast to the older subjects, most 3‐year‐olds had difficulty in attributing to others deviant beliefs of all types, except perhaps ownership, sometimes even after having been told repeatedly what the other child believed. In addition, intercorrelations among different belief tasks were positive and substantial. It was suggested that an emerging representational conception of the mind is what enables older preschoolers to understand the possibility of belief differences of all these types.