Abstracts Psychology

Do children's social judgements affect their false belief task performance?

by Mantavya Narendrabhai Patel

The ability to think about another person’s mental state derives from what commonly referred to in psychology as our Theory of Mind. Our ability to attribute mind to others depends on several factors such as familiarity to the person, our relationship with the individual or our past experiences about the person’s behaviour. This study provides an insight into effect of social factors such as group membership and behaviour on children’s Theory of Mind by assessing the amount of mental effort children apply to make accurate judgments about people and their beliefs depending on their characteristics.