title: Children's sensitivity to their own relative ignorance: handling of possibilities under epistemic and physical uncertainty.
abstract: Children more frequently specified possibilities correctly when uncertainty resided in the physical world (physical uncertainty) than in their own perspective of ignorance (epistemic uncertainty). In Experiment 1 (N=61), 4- to 6-year-olds marked both doors from which a block might emerge when the outcome was undetermined, but a single door when they knew the block was hidden behind one door. In Experiments 2 (N=30; 5- to 6-year-olds) and 3 (N=80; 5- to 8-year-olds), children placed food in both possible locations when an imaginary pet was yet to occupy one, but in a single location when the pet was already hidden in one. The results have implications for interpretive theory of mind and "curse of knowledge."
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. e.j.robinson@warwick.ac.uk
authors.forename: Elizabeth J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Martin G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Rowley
authors.forename: Sarah R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Dan J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Carroll
authors.forename: Ian A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Apperly
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory