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Are there signature limits in early theory of mind?
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Fizke, Ella, Butterfill, Stephen A. (Stephen Andrew), van de Loo, Lea, Reindl, Eva and Rakoczy, Hannes (2017) Are there signature limits in early theory of mind? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 162 . pp. 209-224. ISSN 0022-0965.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.05.005
Abstract
Current theory-of-mind research faces the challenge of reconciling two sets of seemingly incompatible findings: Whereas children come to solve explicit verbal false belief (FB) tasks from around 4years of age, recent studies with various less explicit measures such as looking time, anticipatory looking, and spontaneous behavior suggest that even infants can succeed on some FB tasks. In response to this tension, two-systems theories propose to distinguish between an early-developing system, tracking simple forms of mental states, and a later-developing system, based on fully developed concepts of belief and other propositional attitudes. One prediction of such theories is that the early-developing system has signature limits concerning aspectuality. We tested this prediction in two experiments. The first experiment showed (in line with previous findings) that 2- and 3-year-olds take into account a protagonist's true or false belief about the location of an object in their active helping behavior. In contrast, toddlers' helping behavior did not differentiate between true and false belief conditions when the protagonist's belief essentially involved aspectuality. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with a more stringent method designed to rule out more parsimonious explanations. Taken together, the current findings are compatible with the possibility that early theory-of-mind reasoning is subject to signature limits as predicted by the two-systems account.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BC Logic B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology Q Science > QP Physiology |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of mind in children , Implication (Logic), Explicit memory , Social perception in children | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Experimental Child Psychology | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Elsevier | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0022-0965 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | October 2017 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 162 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 209-224 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 27 November 2017 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 14 June 2018 |
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