Young children use the "ignorance = getting it wrong" rule when predicting behavior

作者：Chen Yulu; Su Yanjie^*; Wang Yijie

来源：Cognitive Development, 2015, 35: 79-91.

DOI：10.1016/j.cogdev.2014.11.004

• Theory of mind
• Ignorance
• Belief reasoning
• " Perceptual access" approach

Three experiments were conducted to investigate young children's use of the "ignorance = getting it wrong" rule. Four- to six-year-old children and adults (comparison group) were told a story, in which the protagonist did not know which of the two options was correct and had an incentive to select one. Although the adults predicted that the protagonist would select the two options equally, the children were biased toward the incorrect option and most mentioned "not knowing" in their explanations of the protagonist's incorrect behavior, indicating that the children used the "ignorance = getting it wrong" rule. Moreover, most of the six-year-olds recognized that the protagonist was also likely to select the other option, whereas most of the four-year-olds thought this selection was unlikely. The results suggest that young children use the "perceptual access" approach in their theory of mind.

• 出版日期2015-9
• 单位北京大学