Children's Understanding of Various Mental States and False-Belief by Types of Tasks

유아의 다양한 마음 상태에 대한 이해 발달과 과제 유형에 따른 틀린 믿음 이해

This study examined the development of children's theory of mind by types of false-belief tasks and various mental states. Seventy six 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-year olds were asked to infer others' minds or choose other's behaviors. Ten tasks, including two picture book tasks, were used to tap the children's understanding of various mental states. Results showed that children did well in their understanding of diverse perception and desire, but they did poorly in emotional inference based on false-belief, and second order false-belief. Children performed better in picture book tasks than in classical tasks for the understanding of false-belief and false-belief based emotion.