Working memory and children's developing understanding of mind

Abstract

Recent work on the mechanisms underlying children's developing theories of mind have identified information-processing capacity as a factor that contributes to children's developing understanding of false belief (Davis & Pratt, 1995). One hundred children 3 to 5 years of age were given a set of false belief tasks and a measure of working memory. A major goal of the study was to replicate the findings of Davis and Pratt using a wider set of false belief tasks and a different measure of working memory. The present study tested the hypothesis that working memory would predict children's performance on the false belief tasks. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that, when the effects of age were controlled for, working memory accounted for 7.4% of the variance in children's false belief scores. The findings support those of Davis and Pratt, and extend them through the use of another measure of working memory. It is concluded that, while the findings indicate a role for working memory in the development of false belief understanding, it is the case that working memory is only one of a number of factors that underlie the development of children's theories of mind.