Do 10-month-old infants understand others' false beliefs?
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Updated: May 30, 2026

The Modified Temptation Resistance Task: A Paradigm to Elicit Children's Strategic Lie-telling
Published on: April 6, 2018
1Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. luoy@missouri.edu
Abstract:
As adults, we know that others' mental states, such as beliefs, guide their behavior and that these mental states can deviate from reality. Researchers have examined whether young children possess adult-like theory of mind by focusing on their understanding about others' false beliefs. The present research revealed that 10-month-old infants seemed to interpret a person's choice of toys based on her true or false beliefs about which toys were present. These results indicate that like adults, even preverbal infants act as if they can consider others' mental states when making inferences about others' actions.
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