Mental files and belief: A cognitive theory of how children represent belief and its intensionality

Cognition
Josef PernerBrian Leahy

Abstract

We provide a cognitive analysis of how children represent belief using mental files. We explain why children who pass the false belief test are not aware of the intensionality of belief. Fifty-one 3½- to 7-year old children were familiarized with a dual object, e.g., a ball that rattles and is described as a rattle. They observed how a puppet agent witnessed the ball being put into box 1. In the agent's absence the ball was taken from box 1, the child was reminded of it being a rattle, and emphasising its being a rattle it was put back into box 1. Then the agent returned, the object was hidden in the experimenter's hands and removed from box 1, described as a "rattle," and transferred to box 2. Children who passed false belief had no problem saying where the puppet would look for the ball. However, in a different condition in which the agent was also shown that the ball was a rattle they erroneously said that the agent would look for the ball in box 1, ignoring the agent's knowledge of the identity of rattle and ball. Their problems cease with their mastery of second-order beliefs (she thinks she knows). Problems also vanish when the ball is described not as a rattle but as a thing that rattles. We describe how our theory can a...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 18, 2018·Cognitive Science·Jiushu XieRuiming Wang
Dec 7, 2018·Zeitschrift Für Psychologie·Eva Rafetseder, Josef Perner
Nov 19, 2020·Royal Society Open Science·Lisa WenzelHannes Rakoczy
Dec 18, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Jean BaratginFrank Jamet
Sep 29, 2021·Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development·William V FabriciusTracy L Spinrad
Nov 2, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Lydia Paulin SchidelkoMarina Proft
Nov 20, 2021·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Kresimir Durdevic, Christopher Krupenye
Sep 9, 2020·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Jonathan PhillipsJoshua Knobe

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