ERIC Number: EJ1482003
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Sep
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: EISSN-1467-8624
Available Date: 2025-06-26
Six-Year-Olds, but Not Younger Children, Consider the Probability of Being Right by Chance When Inferring Others' Knowledge
Rosie Aboody1; Julianna Lu2; Stephanie Denison3; Julian Jara-Ettinger1
Child Development, v96 n5 p1765-1776 2025
When determining what others know, we intuitively consider not only whether they succeed but also their probability of success in the absence of knowledge (e.g., random guessing). Across three experiments (n = 240 North American 4-6-year-olds, data collected between 2020-2023) we find that 4-year-olds understand that tasks with a lower probability of chance success are harder. However, it is not until age 6 that children use this understanding to gauge (Experiment 1) and infer (Experiments 2-3) what others know. These results suggest that, although basic probabilistic reasoning and representations of knowledge are well in place by age 4, children do not integrate the two to make mental-state inferences until much later, pointing to an area of important developmental change in Theory of Mind.
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Age Differences, Childrens Attitudes, Abstract Reasoning, Probability, Cognitive Development, Theory of Mind
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 2045778
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/fm8e2
Author Affiliations: 1Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; 2University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 3University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada