The influence of language and socioeconomic status on children's understanding of false belief.
Study 1 investigated whether differences in the lexical explicitness with which languages express false belief influence children's performance on standard false belief tasks. Preschoolers speaking languages with explicit terms (Turkish and Puerto Rican Spanish) were compared with preschoolers speaking languages without explicit terms (Brazilian Portuguese and English) on questions assessing false belief understanding either specifically (the think question) or more generally (the look for question). Lexical explicitness influenced responses to the think question only. Study 2 replicated Study 1 with groups of both speakers differing in socioeconomic status (SES). A local effect of explicitness was found again as well as a more general influence of SES. The findings are discussed with regard to possible relations among language, SES, and understanding of mind.
Shatz
Marilyn
M
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-1109, USA. mshatz@umich.edu
Diesendruck
Gil
G
Martinez-Beck
Ivelisse
I
Akar
Didar
D
D001288:Attention; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D011340:Problem Solving; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014825:Vocabulary