Infants and adults automatically take account of others' false beliefs, as shown by looking time and reaction time¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2012 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2017: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Seven-month-old infants and adults showed shorter surprise responses to an object's appearance when an observer with a false belief that the object was still present had returned. → Frith Chris D 2012

Evidence¶

Frith Chris D 2012¶

Frith Chris D. (2012). The role of metacognition in human social interactions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2012.0123

q2 · i? · review · r2

A looking-time/reaction-time study (Kovács et al., as reviewed here) in which infants and adults watched a ball hide behind a screen while an observer (a Smurf) was present or absent. The review reports that a falsely believing observer's presence reduced surprise responses in both age groups.

"In the presence of a Smurf who falsely believed that the ball was still present, they were not so surprised (in terms of shorter looking time) by the appearance of the ball even though they had seen it leave."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• False-belief training improves preschoolers' theory of mind scores but the review reports it has no effect on language skills — related
• DCCS training in preschoolers transfers to false-belief understanding — related
• High-quality pretend play is an important facilitator of perspective taking and later abstract thought — related