Three-year-old children tend to fail false belief tasks, whereas five-year-old children tend to pass false belief tasks. Researchers disagree about the sources of these age-related differences in performance

Question

Discuss two different accounts of age-related differences in performance on false belief tasks. What evidence do proponents of each of the two accounts use to support their claims?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Any two of the following four. Some researchers argue that maturational factors related specifically to the understanding of social information are responsible for age-related differences in performance on false belief tasks. These researchers point to the strong consistency across studies in the age at which young children start to succeed on false belief tasks. These researchers also point to a developmental disability known as autism, which is characterized by significant impairments in the ability to understand the mind of others, to show that the mechanisms that allow an understanding of the mind are controlled largely by biological factors. Other researchers argue that the development of information processing skills is responsible for the age-related differences in performance on false belief tasks. These researchers suggest that false belief tasks put too much of a strain on young children's information processing capabilities, and they point to findings that show improved performance on false belief tasks when the information-processing demands are reduced. Other researchers suggest that experience with other people is responsible for age-related differences in performance on false belief tasks. These researchers point to findings that indicate a positive relationship between number of siblings and performance on false belief tasks. Still other researchers suggest that language development contributes to age-related differences on false belief tasks. These researchers point to studies that have demonstrated positive relationships between language abilities and performance on false belief tasks.