ERIC Number: EJ965169
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
Sociocultural Input Facilitates Children's Developing Understanding of Extraordinary Minds
Lane, Jonathan D.; Wellman, Henry M.; Evans, E. Margaret
Child Development, v83 n3 p1007-1021 May-Jun 2012
Three- to 5-year-old (N = 61) religiously schooled preschoolers received theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks about the mental states of ordinary humans and agents with exceptional perceptual or mental capacities. Consistent with an anthropomorphism hypothesis, children beginning to appreciate limitations of human minds (e.g., ignorance) attributed those limits to God. Only 5-year-olds differentiated between humans' fallible minds and God's less fallible mind. Unlike secularly schooled children, religiously schooled 4-year-olds did appreciate another agent's less fallible mental abilities when instructed and reminded about those abilities. Among children who understood ordinary humans' mental fallibilities, knowledge of God predicted attributions of correct epistemic states to extraordinary agents. Results suggest that, at a certain point in ToM development, sociocultural input can facilitate an appreciation for extraordinary minds.
Descriptors: Theory of Mind, Cognitive Development, Sociocultural Patterns, Child Development, Young Children, Religious Factors, Religious Education, Cognitive Ability, Prediction, Socialization, Cultural Influences
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A