The Role of Inference and Conflicting Desires in Preschoolers' Action Predictions
Date
1999
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
The ability to infer other people's desires indicates an understanding of their mental states and, therefore, the presence of a theory of mind. Research has indicated that young children have the ability to make predictions based on explicitly stated desires (Cassidy, 1998; Wellman & Woolley, 1990) and to use information about an agent's past experience to infer desire (Moore, Jarrold, Russell, Lumb, Sapp, and MacCallum, 1995). Three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds' ability to infer an agent's desired actions was explored in the current study. Participants were asked to predict an agents' desires based on descriptions of the agents' preferred behaviors and past experiences. Children were also tested on their ability to infer an agent's desires when the agents' past experiences were likely to lead to desires that conflicted with the children's own preference. Children succeeded at predicting agents' desires when no conflict existed between their own preferences and those of the agents, but could not do so when such a conflict was present, indicating that while children are able to infer desire based on both explicit and implicit information when it is consistent with their own desire, they have difficulty disengaging from their current mental states.