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Changing minds: Children's inferences about third party belief revision
Rachel W Magid1, Phyllis Yan1,2, Max H Siegel1
1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Developmental Science
|May 13, 2017
Summary
Children understand that others revise beliefs based on new evidence. They integrate prior beliefs, data, and sampling, aligning with ideal observer models, not just single factors.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Theory of Mind
Background:
- By age 5, children grasp that agents hold true/false beliefs based on information access.
- Children recognize that identical evidence can lead to different inferences.
- Less is understood about children's expectations of belief revision in others.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate children's expectations regarding third-party belief revision dynamics.
- To explore how children predict when and why others change their minds.
- To compare children's predictions with formal ideal observer models.
Main Methods:
- An agent model was created with prior beliefs about toy locations.
- The agent observed evidence, analyzed from an ideal observer perspective.
- Children's inferences about the agent's belief revision were assessed.
Main Results:
- Children's predictions align with the ideal observer perspective on belief revision.
- Children do not solely rely on prior beliefs, sampling, or observed data.
- Children integrate prior beliefs, sampling, and data to predict belief updates.
Conclusions:
- Children's understanding of belief revision is sophisticated, mirroring ideal observer principles.
- Children integrate multiple factors when inferring how others update beliefs.
- This study sheds light on the developmental trajectory of understanding belief dynamics.
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