title: Which penguin is this? Attributing false beliefs about object identity at 18 months.
abstract: Recent research has shown that infants as young as 13 months can attribute false beliefs to agents, suggesting that the psychological-reasoning subsystem necessary for attributing reality-incongruent informational states (Subsystem-2, SS2) is operational in infancy. The present research asked whether 18-month-olds' false-belief reasoning extends to false beliefs about object identity. Infants watched events involving an agent and 2 toy penguins; 1 penguin could be disassembled (2-piece penguin) and 1 could not (1-piece penguin). Infants realized that outdated contextual information could lead the agent to falsely believe she was facing the 1-piece rather than the 2-piece penguin, suggesting that 18-month-olds can attribute false beliefs about the identity of objects and providing new evidence for SS2 reasoning in the 2nd year of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, 603 East Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA. rmscott2@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: Rose M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Renée
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baillargeon
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology