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Beliefs about thought probability: evidence for persistent errors in mindreading and links to executive control
Kristin Hansen Lagattuta1, Liat Sayfan, Christina Harvey
1University of California, Davis.
Child Development
|September 17, 2013
Summary
Children and adults struggle to understand what others don't know, often overestimating others' knowledge. Working memory and inhibitory control influence these theory of mind abilities.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Social Cognition
- Theory of Mind
Background:
- Understanding others' perspectives, or theory of mind, is crucial for social interaction.
- Children's ability to inhibit their own knowledge and adopt a naive viewpoint develops over time.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how children aged 4-10 and adults inhibit privileged knowledge.
- To assess the simulation of a naive perspective in different age groups.
- To investigate the role of working memory and inhibitory control in these abilities.
Main Methods:
- Participants (N=263) viewed occluded pictures and suggested interpretations from a naive perspective.
- They rated the likelihood of a naive person identifying the correct picture among distractors.
- Individual differences in working memory and inhibitory control were measured.
Main Results:
- A significant increase in novel interpretations was observed between ages 4 and 7.
- All age groups overestimated the probability that a naive person could guess the hidden picture.
- Working memory and inhibitory control predicted suggestion quality and probability judgments.
Conclusions:
- The ability to inhibit one's own knowledge and simulate a naive perspective shows developmental progression.
- Overestimation of naive perspective-taking persists across development.
- Executive functions, including working memory and inhibitory control, are critical for theory of mind development.
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