Do action-based tasks evidence false-belief understanding in young children?

Abstract

Recent research suggests that action-based tasks with nonverbal response formats evidence false-belief understanding at an age at which children usually fail classical verbal tasks. If this were true, it would have important consequences for developmental theories on the origins and emergence of social-cognitive abilities. Yet, it is not clear how robust and reliable these tasks are. Here we report two experiments (overall n = 191) trying to replicate a finding by Rubio-Fernandez and Geurts (2013, Psychological Science). We were not able to replicate the pattern reported by the original study. Our results demonstrate that 3-year-old children do not reliably pass an action-based task. Above chance performance was only found by the age of 4.