Common sense and adult theory of communication

analyst I may learn things about my beliefs by developing a theoretical model of myself. Yet again, cultural factors may strongly influence my conscious beliefs about myself. I may tell myself I am not biased against women because my culture informs me I ought not to be, while the arguments I make at, for example, a selection committee suggest to observers the pres­ ence of a strong bias in my underlying psychological state. My second methodological comment concerns terminology. I believe that statements such as that children "think" such and such, or "believe" such and such, should be made only with considerable caution. What do we mean, for example, when we say, as Gopnik does, "3-year-olds believe that cognitive states come in only two varieties"? The child can classify its states into two varieties, certainly, but "belief" that there are only two suggests a different order of cognitive skill. In the interests of clear thinking, it seems desirable in such circumstances to avoid using words like "belief."