Preschoolers can attribute second-order beliefs

The ability to attribute 2nd-order mental states was investigated in 87 children drawn from preschool, kindergarten, 1 st-grade, and 2nd-grade classes. Children received 4 stories, 2 standard and 2 new, designed to test their understanding of 2nd-order mental states. The standard stories were modified versions of J. Perner and H. Wimmer's (1985) 2nd-order task. The new stories were made significantly simpler by reducing the number of characters, episodes, and scenes and by including a deception context. The main findings were that performance on the new stories was significantly better than on the standard stories and that nearly half of the preschoolers and almost all of the kindergartners were able to attribute 2nd-order beliefs. These findings contrast with earlier research

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