Five experiments examined three-year olds' ability to complete a false belief task that was manipulated in terms of their grasp of the narrative base. Children who failed a traditional task succeeded if they narrated the book version back to the experimenter. The results suggest that the structure of three-year olds' event memories is central to…

Two studies examined young children's ability to understand whether the actions of artifacts, insects, mammals, or humans were caused by mental or physical states. The studies suggest that children abstract specific features of action when construing its cause across disparate situations and actors. (MDM)

Children, ages 4 through 10, predicted exam performance of stimulus students using information about both motivation and ability as well as about either motivation or ability alone. Age did not emerge as the main determinant of response consistency. Children gave greater weight to positive than to negative motivation but equal weight to both…