Preschoolers' understanding of others' desires: Fulfilling mine enhances my understanding of yours.

Abstract

We developed a gift-giving task requiring children to identify their mother's desire, when her desire differed from theirs. We found a developmental change: 3- and 4-year-olds performed more poorly than 5-year-olds (Experiment 1). A modified version of this task (Experiment 2) revealed that 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds whose desires had been fulfilled chose an appropriate gift for their mothers significantly more often than children whose desires were unfulfilled. Children who merely anticipated desire fulfillment also outperformed children whose desires were unfulfilled. Analysis of children's verbal explanations provides converging evidence that desire fulfillment enhanced children's tendency to adopt the perspective of their mother and justify their choices by referencing her desires. Discussion focuses on why desire fulfillment enhances children's ability to consider the desires of others.

Joint Rhythmic Movement Increases 4-Year-Old Children’s Prosocial Sharing and Fairness Toward Peers

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Theory of Mind and Executive Function in Preschoolers with Typical Development Versus Intellectually Able Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Planning encompasses the ability to mentally visualize the strategic steps needed for constant monitoring, evaluation, and updating of actions. The ability to explain false belief increases in preschool, as children gain more opportunities to witness what other people like and dislike and can then draw on these experiences for future reference (Atance et al 2010). Through such experiences, preschoolers monitor and evaluate the knowledge they accumulate, highlighting that high-order cognitive planning is crucial for appropriate explanations in false-belief tasks.…”

What Will I Like Best When I'm All Grown Up? Preschoolers' Understanding of Future Preferences

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