TOM
Theory of Mind
Class: I - Natural Selection
EPA Total Score: 36 /100
Wimmer, H., & Hartl, M. (1991). Against the Cartesian view of mind: Young children’s difficulty with own false beliefs. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 125-136.
Abstract: The present study was concerned with children's ability to identify a prior expectation of their own as false belief. In Expt 1 a sharp improvement was found between 3 years and 5 years not only in the ability to identify own beliefs but also in the explanation of what caused that belief and in the ability to infer another person's belief from exposure to misleading information. Experiment 2 ruled out that 3-year-olds' failure with belief identification was due to a memory problem or to a misunderstanding of the test question. Experiment 3 excluded the further possibility that 3-year-olds simply failed belief identification because of embarrassment about having said something false. The younger children's difficulty with the identification of own beliefs contradicts Wimmer, Hogrefe & Sodian's (1988) proposal that young children's difficulty in understanding another person's false belief is solely due to a failure to understand informational origins of beliefs. The present finding also speaks against the Cartesian assumption that the mind is transparent to itself, an assumption which underlies the perspective taking tradition.
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40/100
Submitted by niruban
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Supporting Evidence is evidence that suggests that this trait is an Evolved Psychological Adaptation (EPA) - i.e., that it has been shaped by natural selection to solve a particular adaptive problem.
Challenging Evidence
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0/100
Submitted by niruban
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Challenging Evidence is evidence that suggests that this trait is not an EPA - e.g., that it is a product of cultural learning or genetic drift, or maybe it does not exist at all. However over each line of evidence for a description.