15.3.4: Social Cognition

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the concept of theory-theory and how young children form explanations about the world.
2. Define theory of mind and explain how false belief tasks are used to assess its development.
3. Identify key components and the developmental sequence of theory of mind in early childhood.
4. Discuss cultural influences on theory of mind development and its role in social understanding.

Both Piaget and Vygotsky believed that children actively try to understand the world around them. More recently, developmentalists have added to this understanding by examining how children organize information and develop their own theories about the world.

Theory-Theory

The tendency of children to generate theories to explain everything they encounter is called theory-theory. This concept implies that humans are naturally inclined to find reasons and generate explanations for why things occur. Children frequently ask questions about what they see or hear around them. When the answers provided do not satisfy their curiosity or are too complicated for them to understand, they generate their own theories. In much the same way that scientists construct and revise their theories, children do the same with their intuitions about the world as they encounter new experiences (Gopnik & Wellman, 2012). One of the theories that begins to emerge in early childhood centers on the mental states, both their own and those of others.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): What theories might this boy be creating? Image by Eglin Air Force Base is in the public domain.

Theory of Mind

Theory of mind refers to the ability to think about other people’s thoughts. This mental mind-reading helps humans to understand and predict the reactions of others, thus playing a crucial role in social development. One common method for determining if a child has reached this mental milestone is the false belief task, described below.

The research began with a clever experiment by Wimmer and Perner (1983), who tested whether children can pass a false-belief test (see Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)). The child is shown a picture story of Sally, who puts her ball in a basket and leaves the room. While Sally is out of the room, Anne comes along and takes the ball from the basket, putting it inside a box. The child is then asked where Sally thinks the ball is located when she comes back to the room. Will she look first in the box or the basket?

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Salle-Anne task to test children's ability to infer false beliefs. Image by Bertram Malle is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The correct answer is that she will look in the basket, because that’s where she put it and thinks it is; but we have to infer this false belief against our own better knowledge that the ball is in the box.

This is particularly challenging for children under the age of four due to the cognitive effort required. Three-year-olds often struggle to distinguish between what they once believed to be true and what they now know to be true. They feel confident that what they know now is what they have always known (Birch & Bloom, 2003). Even adults need to think through this task (Epley et. al, 2004).

To be successful at solving this type of task the child must separate what he or she “knows” to be true from what someone else might “think” is true. In Piagetian terms, they must give up a tendency toward egocentrism. The child must also understand that what guides people’s actions and responses are what they “believe” rather than what is reality. In other words, people can mistakenly believe things that are false and will act based on this false knowledge. Consequently, prior to age four children are rarely successful at solving such a task (Wellman et. al, 2001).

Researchers examining the development of theory of mind have been concerned by the overemphasis on the mastery of false belief as the primary measure of whether a child has attained theory of mind. Wellman and his colleagues (Wellman et al., 2006) suggest that theory of mind is comprised of several components, each with its own developmental timeline (see Table \(\PageIndex{1}\)).

Table \(\PageIndex{1}\). Components of Theory of Mind (adapted from Lally & Valentine-French)

Component	Description
Diverse-desires	Understanding that two people may have different desires regarding the same object.
Diverse-beliefs	Understanding that two people may hold different beliefs about an object.
Knowledge access (knowledge/ignorance)	Understanding that people may or may not have access to information.
False belief	Understanding that someone might hold a belief based on false information.
Hidden emotion	Understanding that people may not always express their true emotions.

Two-year-olds understand the diversity of desires; yet, as noted earlier, it is not until age four or five that children grasp false belief, and often not until middle childhood do they understand that people may hide how they truly feel. In part, because children in early childhood have difficulty hiding their true feelings.

Cultural Differences in Theory of Mind

Those in early childhood in the US, Australia, and Germany develop theory of mind in the sequence outlined above. Yet, Chinese and Iranian preschoolers acquire knowledge access before diverse beliefs (Shahaeian et. al, 2011). Shahaeian and colleagues (2011) suggested that cultural differences in child-rearing may account for this reversal. Parents in collectivistic cultures, such as China and Iran, emphasize conformity to family and cultural values, greater respect for elders, and the acquisition of knowledge and academic skills more than they do autonomy and social skills (Frank et al., 2010). This could reduce the degree of familial conflict of opinions expressed in the family. In contrast, individualistic cultures encourage children to think for themselves and assert their own opinions, which could increase the risk of conflict when family members express their beliefs.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): A family from a non-Western culture. Image by Giorgio Montersino is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

As a result, children in individualistic cultures would acquire insight into the diversity of beliefs earlier. In contrast, children in collectivistic cultures would acquire knowledge access earlier in the sequence. The role of conflict in aiding the development of theory of mind may account for the earlier age of onset of understanding false belief in children with siblings, especially older siblings (McAlister & Petersen, 2007; Perner et al., 1994).

This awareness of the existence of theory of mind is part of social intelligence, such as recognizing that others can think differently about situations. It helps us to be self-aware that others may perceive us in different ways, and it encourages us to be understanding and empathetic toward others. Moreover, this mind-reading ability helps us to anticipate and predict people’s actions. Awareness of others' mental states is crucial for effective communication and social skills. ²¹

References, Contributors and Attributions

21. Lifespan Development: A Psychological Perspective by Martha Lally and Suzanne Valentine-French is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Birch, S., & Bloom, P. (2003). Children are cursed: An asymmetric bias in mental-state attribution. Psychological Science, 14(3), 283-286.

Epley, N., Morewedge, C. K., & Keysar, B. (2004). Perspective taking in children and adults: Equivalent egocentrism but differential correction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 760–768.

Frank, G., Plunkett, S. W., & Otten, M. P. (2010). Perceived parenting, self-esteem, and general self-efficacy of Iranian American adolescents. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 19, 738-746.

Gopnik, A., & Wellman, H.M. (2012). Reconstructing constructivism: Causal models, Bayesian learning mechanisms, and the theory theory. Psychological Bulletin, 138(6), 1085-1108.

McAlister, A. R., & Peterson, C. C. (2007). A longitudinal study of siblings and theory of mind development. Cognitive Development, 22, 258-270.

Perner, J., Ruffman, T., & Leekam, S. R. (1994). Theory of mind is contagious: You catch from your sibs. Child Development, 65, 1228-1238.

Shahaeian, A., Peterson, C. C., Slaughter, V., & Wellman, H. M. (2011). Culture and the sequence of steps in theory of mind development. Developmental Psychology, 47(5), 1239-1247.

Wellman, H.M., Cross, D., & Watson, J. (2001). Meta-analysis of theory of mind development: The truth about false belief. Child Development, 72(3), 655-684.

Wellman, H. M., Fang, F., Liu, D., Zhu, L, & Liu, L. (2006). Scaling theory of mind understandings in Chinese children. Psychological Science, 17, 1075-1081.

Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception. Cognition, 13, 103–128.