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Sociocultural Input Facilitates Children's Developing Understanding of Extraordinary Minds

Authors :
Lane, Jonathan D.
Wellman, Henry M.
Evans, E. Margaret
Source :
Child Development. May-Jun 2012 83(3):1007-1021.
Publication Year :
2012

Abstract

Three- to 5-year-old (N = 61) religiously schooled preschoolers received theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks about the mental states of ordinary humans and agents with exceptional perceptual or mental capacities. Consistent with an anthropomorphism hypothesis, children beginning to appreciate limitations of human minds (e.g., ignorance) attributed those limits to God. Only 5-year-olds differentiated between humans' fallible minds and God's less fallible mind. Unlike secularly schooled children, religiously schooled 4-year-olds did appreciate another agent's less fallible mental abilities when instructed and reminded about those abilities. Among children who understood ordinary humans' mental fallibilities, knowledge of God predicted attributions of correct epistemic states to extraordinary agents. Results suggest that, at a certain point in ToM development, sociocultural input can facilitate an appreciation for extraordinary minds.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0009-3920
Volume :
83
Issue :
3
Database :
ERIC
Journal :
Child Development
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
EJ965169
Document Type :
Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01741.x