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Do 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs? - PubMed

  • ️Sat Jan 01 2005

Clinical Trial

Do 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs?

Kristine H Onishi et al. Science. 2005.

Abstract

For more than two decades, researchers have argued that young children do not understand mental states such as beliefs. Part of the evidence for this claim comes from preschoolers' failure at verbal tasks that require the understanding that others may hold false beliefs. Here, we used a novel nonverbal task to examine 15-month-old infants' ability to predict an actor's behavior on the basis of her true or false belief about a toy's hiding place. Results were positive, supporting the view that, from a young age, children appeal to mental states--goals, perceptions, and beliefs--to explain the behavior of others.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1

Events shown during (A) the first familiarization and (B) the second and third familiarization trials. The light gray box represents the yellow box; the dark gray box represents the green box.

Fig. 2
Fig. 2

Events shown during the belief-induction trial in the (A) TB-green condition, (B) TB-yellow condition, (C) FB-green condition, and (D) FB-yellow condition.

Fig. 3
Fig. 3

Events shown during the test trial.

Fig. 4
Fig. 4

Mean (±SE) looking times during the test trial (after the actor reached into the green or yellow box) in the four belief conditions.

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