Justifying all the fuss about false belief.
The classic study by Wimmer and Perner showed that children below the age of about 4 years of age fail to appreciate others' false beliefs. This opened the floodgates to the theory-of-mind research programme. Recently, a study by Riggs and Simpson has called the central challenge of false belief into question, reporting similar difficulties with true belief. I would argue, however, that not only should the acquisition of false belief remain a central concern but that we should think harder about it and its earlier manifestations.
Russell
James
J
Department of Experimental Psychology, Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK. jr111@hermes.cam.ac.uk
D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D002666:Psychology, Child