The ability to make inferences about what one's peers know is critical for social interaction and communication. Three experiments (n = 309) examined the curse of knowledge, the tendency to be biased by one's knowledge when reasoning about others' knowledge, in children's estimates of their peers' knowledge. Four- to 7-year-olds were taught the…

In one experiment, second and fourth graders used more categorical information when they made inferences than did preschoolers. In two other experiments, second graders, but not preschoolers, distinguished between categorical information and appearance when they made inferences about known concepts and familiar properties. (BC)