Eighteen-month-olds' memory interference and distraction in a modified A-not-B task is not associated with their anticipatory looking in a false-belief task
Infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks is often interpreted as if they have understood false beliefs. This view has been questioned by a recent account that explains infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks as the result of susceptibility to memory interference...
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Published in | Frontiers in psychology Vol. 6; p. 857 |
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Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
22.06.2015
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks is often interpreted as if they have understood false beliefs. This view has been questioned by a recent account that explains infants' performance in non-verbal false-belief tasks as the result of susceptibility to memory interference and distraction. We tested this alternative account by investigating the relationship between infants' false-belief understanding, susceptibility to memory interference and distraction, and general cognitive development in 18-month-old infants (N = 22). False-belief understanding was tested in an anticipatory looking paradigm of a standard false-belief task. Susceptibility to memory interference and distraction was tested in a modified A-not-B task. Cognitive development was measured via the Mental Scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. We did not find any relationship between infants' performance in the false-belief task and the A-not-B task, even after controlling for cognitive development. This study shows that there is no ubiquitous relation between susceptibility to memory interference and distraction and performance in a false-belief task in infancy. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Daniela Corbetta, University of Tennessee, USA Reviewed by: Yuyan Luo, University of Missouri, USA; Claudia I. Thoermer, Ludwig Maximilian University, Germany This article was submitted to Developmental Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology |
ISSN: | 1664-1078 1664-1078 |
DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00857 |