Eighteen-month-olds' memory interference and distraction in a modified A-not-B task is not associated with their anticipatory looking in a false-belief task.

Norbert Zmyj,Moritz M Daum,Wolfgang Prinz

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00857

Abstract

Infants’ performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks is often interpreted as if they have understood false beliefs. This view has been questioned by a recent account that explains infants’ performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks as the result of susceptibility to memory interference and distraction. We tested this alternative account by investigating the relationship between infants’ false-belief understanding, susceptibility to memory interference and distraction, and general cognitive development in 18-month-old infants (N = 22). False-belief understanding was tested in an anticipatory looking paradigm of a standard false-belief task. Susceptibility to memory interference and distraction was tested in a modified A-not-B task. Cognitive development was measured via the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. We did not find any relationship between infants’ performance in the false-belief task and the A-not-B task, even after controlling for cognitive development. This study shows that there is no ubiquitous relation between susceptibility to memory interference and distraction and performance in a false-belief task in infancy.

Highlights

The proposal that infants are able to understand other agents’ false beliefs has been a source of lively debate over the last decade (Onishi and Baillargeon, 2005; Ruffman and Perner, 2005; Heyes, 2014; Scott and Baillargeon, 2014)
The first box – where the agent has seen the ball being placed (r = 0.11, p = 0.63, Spearman rank correlation). This remained after controlling for cognitive development measured in the BSID (r = −0.06, p = 0.78; r = −0.15, p = 0.49, Spearman rank correlation)
The present study revealed no correlation between a non-verbal false-belief task and a modified version of the A-not-B task

Summary

Introduction

The proposal that infants are able to understand other agents’ false beliefs has been a source of lively debate over the last decade (Onishi and Baillargeon, 2005; Ruffman and Perner, 2005; Heyes, 2014; Scott and Baillargeon, 2014). In traditional false-belief tasks, children explicitly reason about an agent’s future behavior based on the agent’s false belief, which is indicated by the children’s verbal response (Wimmer and Perner, 1983). In the seminal “Maxi” task, Maxi puts the chocolate in the blue cupboard and leaves the room. While he is away, his mother enters the room and puts the chocolate in the green cupboard. Children are asked where Maxi will look for his chocolate after his return. Children demonstrate their false-belief understanding by indicating that Maxi will look for the chocolate in the blue cupboard. At around 4 years of age, children pass this type of task (Wellman et al, 2001)

Methods

Results

Conclusion