Question

Topic for the debate Appearance cannot be deceptive. Any more points. ​

Answer 1

Appearances Are Deceiving: Observing the World as It Looks and How It Really Is—Theory of Mind Performances Investigated in 3-, 4-, and 5-Year-Old Children

Lucia Bigozzi,1 Alessandra Di Cosimo,1 and Giulia Vettori 1

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Academic Editor: Randal X. Moldrich

Published

08 Dec 2016

Abstract

Appearance-reality (AR) distinction understanding in preschoolers is worth of further consideration. This also goes for its relationship with false-belief (FB) understanding. This study helped fill these gaps by assessing 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children’s performances on an appearance-reality distinction task and by investigating relationships with unexpected location, deceptive content, and deception comprehension task performances. 91 preschoolers participated in this study divided into 3 groups: (1) 37 children, M-age 3.4 years; (2) 23 children, M-age 4.5 years; (3) 31 children, M-age 5.4 years. A developmental trend was found where appearance-reality distinction understanding was significantly influenced by age. If wrong answers were particularly high by 3-year-old children, they greatly decreased by 4- and 5-year-old children. 3-year-old children also tended to fail in FB tasks; instead 4- and 5-year-old children performed AR tasks better than FB tasks. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

1. Theory of Mind: A Complex Construct

Since Premack and Woodruff [1], “theory of mind” (ToM) has been one of the major fields of research in child development. Recognized as a multifaceted sociocognitive process [2], it shows a deep involvement with both cognitive and social functioning [3, 4]. Children’s ToM defines both awareness of their own mental states (i.e., thought, decision, knowledge, and belief) and the fact that people may have different representations of the world and act on the basis of them [1]. So, this ability allows one to explain and predict people’s behavior [5–7]. The key aspects of ToM are that children recognize other people as psychological beings [8] and distinguish internal from external world [9]. The construct of ToM comprises different components: from young children’s ability to speak of their own and others’ mental states.

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