Attributing false beliefs about non-obvious properties at 18 months

Rose M. Scott; Renée Baillargeon; Hyun joo Song; Alan M. Leslie

doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2010.09.001

Attributing false beliefs about non-obvious properties at 18 months

Rose M. Scott, Renée Baillargeon, Hyun joo Song, Alan M. Leslie

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

86 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Reports that infants in the second year of life can attribute false beliefs to others have all used a search paradigm in which an agent with a false belief about an object's location searches for the object. The present research asked whether 18-month-olds would still demonstrate false-belief understanding when tested with a novel non-search paradigm. An experimenter shook an object, demonstrating that it rattled, and then asked an agent, " Can you do it?" In response to this prompt, the agent selected one of two test objects. Infants realized that the agent could be led through inference (Experiment 1) or memory (Experiment 2) to hold a false belief about which of the two test objects rattled. These results suggest that 18-month-olds can attribute false beliefs about non-obvious properties to others, and can do so in a non-search paradigm. These and additional results (Experiment 3) help address several alternative interpretations of false-belief findings with infants.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	366-395
Number of pages	30
Journal	Cognitive Psychology
Volume	61
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2010.09.001
Publication status	Published - 2010 Dec

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported by a predoctoral traineeship from NIMH ( 1 T32MH1819990 ) to Rose M. Scott, by a grant from NICHD to Renée Baillargeon ( HD-021104 ), by a grant from the Korean Research Foundation to Hyun-joo Song ( KRF-2008-332-H00011 ), and by grants from NSF to Alan M. Leslie ( BCS-0725169 and BCS-0922184 ). We thank Andrei Cimpian, Jerry DeJong, and Cindy Fisher for helpful discussions; the staff of the University of Illinois Infant Cognition Laboratory for their help with the data collection and coding; and the parents and infants who participated in the research.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Linguistics and Language
Artificial Intelligence

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10.1016/j.cogpsych.2010.09.001

Cite this

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abstract = "Reports that infants in the second year of life can attribute false beliefs to others have all used a search paradigm in which an agent with a false belief about an object's location searches for the object. The present research asked whether 18-month-olds would still demonstrate false-belief understanding when tested with a novel non-search paradigm. An experimenter shook an object, demonstrating that it rattled, and then asked an agent, {"} Can you do it?{"} In response to this prompt, the agent selected one of two test objects. Infants realized that the agent could be led through inference (Experiment 1) or memory (Experiment 2) to hold a false belief about which of the two test objects rattled. These results suggest that 18-month-olds can attribute false beliefs about non-obvious properties to others, and can do so in a non-search paradigm. These and additional results (Experiment 3) help address several alternative interpretations of false-belief findings with infants.",

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note = "Funding Information: This research was supported by a predoctoral traineeship from NIMH ( 1 T32MH1819990 ) to Rose M. Scott, by a grant from NICHD to Ren{\'e}e Baillargeon ( HD-021104 ), by a grant from the Korean Research Foundation to Hyun-joo Song ( KRF-2008-332-H00011 ), and by grants from NSF to Alan M. Leslie ( BCS-0725169 and BCS-0922184 ). We thank Andrei Cimpian, Jerry DeJong, and Cindy Fisher for helpful discussions; the staff of the University of Illinois Infant Cognition Laboratory for their help with the data collection and coding; and the parents and infants who participated in the research. ",

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Attributing false beliefs about non-obvious properties at 18 months

Abstract

Bibliographical note

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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