ERIC Number: EJ743743
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Oct
Pages: 20
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0965
EISSN: N/A
False Belief and Language Comprehension in Cantonese-Speaking Children
Cheung, Him
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, v95 n2 p79-98 Oct 2006
The current research compared two accounts of the relation between language and false belief in children, namely that (a) language is generally related to false belief because both require secondary representation in a social-interactional context and that (b) specific language structures that explicitly code meta representation contribute uniquely to the language--false belief relation. In three studies, attempts were made to correlate Cantonese-speaking children's false belief with their general language comprehension and understanding of certain structures that explicitly express meta representational knowledge. Results showed that these structures failed to predict false belief after age, nonverbal intelligence, and general language comprehension were considered. In contrast, general language remained predictive of false belief after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence, and language structures. The current findings are more consistent with a general language account than a language structure account. (Contains 5 tables and 1 footnote.)
Descriptors: Beliefs, Childhood Attitudes, Comprehension, Sino Tibetan Languages, Native Speakers, Comparative Analysis, Interpersonal Relationship, Correlation, Age, Nonverbal Ability, Kindergarten, Meta Analysis, English, Syntax, Foreign Countries, Verbal Communication, Language Acquisition
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Kindergarten
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Hong Kong
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A