Discussion.

While in no way denying the interest of the study of “Theories of Mind”, the discussion tends to show that, in the tasks described in the papers, the development of abilities to process perceptual and verbal information is sufficient in itself to fully account for changes in observed responses. Whether the issue is false beliefs or the distinction between appearance and reality, children's behavior is highly dependent on their working memory span, their operational efficiency (action coordination) and their current state of knowledge. “Theories of Mind” emerge as indices of cognitive development. Their adaptive value is more problematical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]