Examples of True Belief and False Belief Contents tasks with 4-year-olds

We use a standard Contents False Belief (FB) task paired with a Contents True Belief (TB) task to assess children’s Belief Understanding. In each task, children are asked the test question (“What will the other person think is in the box?” and are asked to justify their answers (“Why will he think _____ is inside the box”?). The order of the TB and FB tasks are counterbalanced across children. Note: The “Highlights” show children answering the TB test question. Go to the individual participants' folder (just below the "Highlights" section under "Data") in order to see the video which shows the entirety of the TB and FB tasks. The full data forms and task scripts are available in the "Materials" folder. One child illustrates Reality Reasoning (RR). He fails the FB task and passes the TB task. In both he says that the other person will “get it right” and think that the actual contents are in the box, and justifies his answers by saying, in effect, “because that’s what’s in there.” One child illustrates Perceptual Access Reasoning (PAR). He passes the FB task and fails the TB task. In both cases he says that the other person will “get it wrong” and think that what isn’t in the box is in there (crayons in false belief, key in true belief), and justifies his answers by saying, in effect, “because he doesn’t know what’s in there.” One child illustrates Belief Reasoning (BR). He passes the FB task and passes the TB task. In both cases he says that the other person will think the typical contents are in the box, and justifies his answers by saying, “because it’s a [crayon / M&M’s] box.” In a large (N = 161) longitudinal study of ours, all children at 4 ½ and at 6 years of age could be reliably classified as using RR, a mixture of RR & PAR, PAR, or BR. Scoring criteria are available upon request.