Lexical choice can lead to problems: what false-belief tests tell us about Greek alternative verbs of agency

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATERINA MARIDAKI-KASSOTAKI ◽  
CHARLIE LEWIS ◽  
NORMAN H. FREEMAN
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Mental States ◽  
False Belief ◽  
The Other ◽  
Adult Type ◽  
Lexical Choice ◽  
Chance Performance ◽  
Behavioural Description ◽  
Chance Success

Verbs of agency denote relations between behavioural and mental states. Thus, ‘Jim is looking for X’ goes beyond a behavioural description, to take a mentalistic construal whereby Jim's desire for success, and his beliefs about how to search, explain his observed actions. Greek has two verbs of agency that can be used somewhat interchangeably by adults to mean ‘to look for’. The hypothesis is that young children will obey the principle of contrast to diagnose that one verb is mentalistic and the other verb is to be construed behaviourally. Following a study of mothers' verb-use, two studies with 238 children aged three to five years confirmed that the verb preferred in home use gave below-chance performance on a false-belief test whilst the less-established verb gave above-chance success, with children giving appropriate justifications. Thus, Greek preschoolers seem sometimes to have an adult-type understanding and sometimes fail to match the adult understanding. The proposal is that the children initially convert an adult verb-use pragmatic difference into a semantic contrast.

False Beliefs About Emotion: Children's Understanding of Misleading Emotional Displays

1988 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Gross ◽  
Paul L. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
False Belief ◽  
The Other ◽  
Main Character ◽  
False Beliefs ◽  
Major Goal ◽  
Emotional Displays ◽  
Display Rule ◽  
The Way

The major goal of this study was to determine whether young children appreciate that one effect of using a display rule may be to create a false belief in another person. Fourand 6-year-old children listened to stories in which it would be appropriate for the protagonist to really feel a negative emotion. In half of the stories a reason was given for the protagonist to hide the way he or she really felt (the discrepant condition) from the other story characters; the other half contained a reason for the protagonist to show the other story characters how he or she really felt (the nondiscrepant condition). Subjects were asked to say how the main character would really feel, how the main character would look on his or her face, and how other characters in the story would think the protagonist felt, and to justify their answers. The results indicated that 6-year-old children were more accurate than 4-year-old children in judging that real and apparent emotion would not coincide in the discrepant condition and that other story characters would be misled as a result. Six-year-olds also offered more correct justifications of their responses in both story conditions. The findings are related to recent investigations of children's understanding of the appearance-reality distinction and the development of children's knowledge about how to create a false belief in another person.

scholarly journals Developmental diversity in mindreading and metacognition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunae Kim ◽  
Ameneh Shahaeian ◽  
Joëlle Proust
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Mental States ◽  
False Belief ◽  
The Self ◽  
Child Rearing ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
False Belief Tasks ◽  
Autonomous Agency ◽  
Alternative Practices

A first aim of this chapter is to explain why children seem to present different patterns of development across cultures for solving false-belief tasks. Anthropological evidence is presented suggesting that the tests devised for Western children might not be adequate outside Western cultures. Alternative practices and values, such as the willingness/refusal to express one’s own mental states, the degree of autonomous agency allocated to young children, and the style of communication used in child-rearing, might partly explain the timing differences in the development of mindreading. A second aim is to identify the sociocultural factors that might also differentially impact the development of metacognitive abilities. It is proposed that the cultural practices that regulate patterns of attention, ways of learning, and communicational pragmatics should differentially influence the kinds of epistemic decisions that need to be monitored and the process of attribution of knowledge to the self in young children.

The Results of a Questionary on Antipathy [I Resultati del Questionario sull Antipatia] (Psiche, October–December, 1915.) De Sarlo and Fanciulli

1916 ◽  
Vol 62 (258) ◽  
pp. 611-612
Author(s):  
Havelock Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Special Function ◽  
Mental States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Education ◽  
Chronic Form ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Artificial Conception

Questions were circulated by an Italian psychological society among psychologists, professors, and others concerning antipathy, its relation to other antagonistic states, its description and analysis, its various forms, its course and transformations. Something over a hundred replies were received, and many are here reproduced. They are often interesting and suggestive, but, as might be expected, sometimes contradictory. Gambara and others consider antipathy fundamental and instinctive. Stepanoff, on the other hand, who regards antipathy as chronic opposition, argues that acute opposition arises earlier than the chronic form, which is not known in young children, and presupposes so considerable a social education that it is not one of the first even of chronic psychic states. Assagioli regards it as a reaction of defence, derived from the instinct of conservation, and not easily distinguished from other states of opposition. Foà, however, believes that the oppositional states are easily determined, and are aversion, hate, repugnance, and antipathy; he regards antipathy as fundamental and primitive. Boncinelli and others believe that antipathy is simply a complex result of many mental states, and that it has no special function, while Vacca regards it as a purely artificial conception, and mainly negative.

Children Are Cursed

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan A.J. Birch ◽  
Paul Bloom
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
False Belief ◽  
The Other ◽  
Knowledge Attribution ◽  
False Beliefs ◽  
Older Children ◽  
False Belief Tasks ◽  
Curse Of Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Bias

Young children have problems reasoning about false beliefs. We suggest that this is at least partially the result of the same curse of knowledge that has been observed in adults—a tendency to be biased by one's own knowledge when assessing the knowledge of a more naive person. We tested 3- to 5-year-old children in a knowledge-attribution task and found that young children exhibited a curse-of-knowledge bias to a greater extent than older children, a finding that is consistent with their greater difficulty with false-belief tasks. We also found that children's misattributions were asymmetric. They were limited to cases in which the children were more knowledgeable than the other person; misattributions did not occur when the children were more ignorant than the other person. This suggests that their difficulty is better characterized by the curse of knowledge than by more general egocentrism or rationality accounts.

Predictions of Actions and Their Justifications in False-Belief Tasks: The Role of Executive Function

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 500-510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Putko ◽  
Agata Złotogórska
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Mental States ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Current Location ◽  
False Belief Tasks ◽  
Development Of Language

Abstract The main objective of this study was to examine whether children’s ability to justify their action predictions in terms of mental states is related, in a similar way as the ability to predict actions, to such aspects of executive function (EF) as executive control and working memory. An additional objective was to check whether the frequency of different types of justifications made by children in false-belief tasks is associated with aforementioned aspects of EF, as well as language. The study included 59 children aged 3-4 years. The ability to predict actions and to justify these predictions was measured with false-belief tasks. Luria’s hand-game was used to assess executive control, and the Counting and Labelling dual-task was used to assess working memory capacity. Language development was controlled using an embedded syntax test. It was found that executive control was a significant predictor of the children’s ability to justify their action predictions in terms of mental states, even when age and language were taken into account. Results also indicated a relationship between the type of justification in the false-belief task and language development. With the development of language children gradually cease to justify their action predictions in terms of current location, and they tend to construct irrelevant justifications before they begin to refer to beliefs. Data suggest that executive control, in contrast to language, is a factor which affects the development of the children’s ability to justify their action predictions only in its later phase, during a shift from irrelevant to correct justifications.

scholarly journals Infection risks from water in natural and man-made environments

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Escherichia Coli ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Cryptosporidium Parvum ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Faeces ◽  
The Face ◽  
Diarrhoeal Diseases

People can catch diarrhoeal diseases from contamination of both natural and man-made environments with human or animal faeces. Young children are more likely to be susceptible to the agents and to be exposed. While some diarrhoeal diseases acquired in childhood can be relatively mild and give some protection as an adult, others are more severe. The two papers presented in this issue of Eurosurveillance describe, on the face of it, unremarkable small outbreaks; one, from Chikwe Ihekweazu et al, linked to exposure to a stream contaminated with Escherichia coli from animal faeces [1]; the other, from Melanie Jones et al, to exposure to a water feature contaminated with Cryptosporidium parvum from either animal or human faeces [2].

scholarly journals Menneskeverd og menneskerettighetsundervisning: En sosialsemiotisk multimodalitetsanalyse og drøfting av verdighetsbegrepet i filmen A Path to Dignity: The Power of Human Rights Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 141-168
Author(s):  
Eva Maagerø ◽  
Ådne Valen-Sendstad
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Research Question ◽  
The State ◽  
Muslim Woman ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Rights Education ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Concern For Others ◽  
Analytical Tools

This chapter is an analysis and discussion of the globally popular human rights education film: A Path to Dignity: the Power of Human Rights Education. The film is produced by Ellen Bruno and is a cooperation with the UN department OHCHR and the human rights education organisations HREA and SGI. The film combines human rights education and dignity. Our research question is how human rights education and dignity is presented and understood in the film. The film is organized in three parts, and addresses Indian children, a Muslim woman and police in Australia. We have analysed the part about the young children in India. In our discussion of the film we have applied social semiotic theory and related analytical tools. We have analysed the representations, interactions and composition of the film. The result of the analysis shows a focus on the local situation of the children. Through human rights education the children experience a transformation in gaining a sense of dignity. This leads to a particular concern for others whose dignity is violated. The state that is responsible for their human rights is not addressed. The film presents human rights education with an interest for individual children, and dignity is understood morally, as responsibility for the other.

Beyond ‘Othering’: Rethinking Approaches to Teaching Young Anglo-Australian Children about Indigenous Australians

2001 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenda MacNaughton ◽  
Karina Davis
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The Other ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Curriculum Frameworks ◽  
Curriculum Framework

Current early childhood literature concerning anti-racist and multicultural education discusses the importance of adopting a curriculum framework to counter the development of prejudice and racism in young children. This article draws on two separate research projects in Victoria, Australia that explore how this might best be done. One project was concerned with exploring young children's understandings of indigenous Australians and their cultures and the other investigated teaching practices of a group of early childhood practitioners with indigenous Australians and their cultures. The results from these two projects are compared in order to explore some current issues in adopting curriculum frameworks that counter the development of prejudice and racism in young Anglo-Australian children towards Australia's indigenous peoples and cultures.

Aligning Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom Learning Experiences

2021 ◽  
pp. 60-83
Author(s):  
Meg Deane Franko ◽  
Duan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Developmentally Appropriate ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The Other ◽  
Developmentally Appropriate Practices ◽  
Classroom Learning ◽  
Kindergarten Classroom ◽  
Appropriate Practices

The focus of transition from preschool to kindergarten is often placed on what can be done to prepare the child. Relatively little emphasis is placed on how differences between learning experiences across settings might impact the child's transition from one setting to the other. This chapter presents the results of secondary data analysis of the 2009 FACES study that show that the alignment of prekindergarten-kindergarten (PK-K) learning experiences impacts children's kindergarten outcomes. In particular, HLM modeling found that children who had at least as many or more activity-based centers in their classrooms in kindergarten as they had in prekindergarten showed significantly better literacy and math outcomes at the end of kindergarten than children who had less or no activity-based centers in kindergarten. This chapter advocates for a systemic focus on transition that puts an emphasis on continuing developmentally appropriate practices between preschool and kindergarten settings as a way to facilitate transitions and improve outcomes for young children.

Google’s Saathi :Women and the Smartphone

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravi Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
The Other ◽  
Know How ◽  
Cool Desert ◽  
As If

As night fell in the tiny hamlet of Nangli Jamawat, a light glowed within one section of a small two-roomed home, like a soft beacon. The house was rectangular, built of brick with gray cement coarsely patted over its surface. Inside the main room were two wooden beds, side by side. On one, two young children were sleeping soundly, neatly curled into cashews. On the other lay Satish, on his back, as his wife, Phoolwati, readied to join him. A cool desert zephyr had seeped under the door and into the room; human warmth was a welcome relief. In a bare corner, on the cement floor, a thin white wire coiled to a rectangular object that was the source of the light. Phoolwati had set her smartphone down to charge. As she lay down, before she could shut her eyes, the rectangle of light faded into a black mirror. Room, home, fields, village became night. Phoolwati had been the first to show her fellow villagers a smartphone. “Want to see a miracle?” she asked a group of women sitting together and tossing rice on wide bamboo sieves, separating the grain from its residual husk. “There’s this new thing called Google—want to see?” “Goo-gull? What’s that, a game?” replied one of the women blandly, bored, barely looking up as she kept tossing grain. Her name was Chameli. “No, no, it’s a really useful thing. It comes on the mobile,” said Phoolwati, pointing to her smartphone. “If you want to learn about the best seeds to plant, you ask this thing. If you want to know how to get government money to build a toilet, you ask Google. It has all the answers in this world.” Chameli stopped to look up at Phoolwati. She raised an eyebrow theatrically, as if to ask: “Don’t you have anything better to do, woman?” Phoolwati was not deterred. “It has the Hanuman Chaleesa also, set to beautiful music,” she tried again, changing tack to matters of the divine. The tossing paused. The name of their chosen deity, the monkey-god Hanuman, made her audience sit up and take note.

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