Metacognition and mindreading in young children: A cross-cultural study

Kim, Sunae; Sodian, Beate; Paulus, Markus; Senju, Atsushi; Okuno, Akiko; Ueno, Mika; Itakura, Shoji und Proust, Joelle (2020): Metacognition and mindreading in young children: A cross-cultural study. In: Consciousness and Cognition, Bd. 85, 103017

Abstract

Prior studies document cross cultural variation in the developmental onset of mindreading. In particular, Japanese children are reported to pass a standard false belief task later than children from Western countries. By contrast, we know little about cross-cultural variation in young children's metacognitive abilities. Moreover, one prominent theoretical discussion in developmental psychology focuses on the relation between metacognition and mindreading. Here we investigated the relation between mindreading and metacognition (both implicit and explicit) by testing 4-year-old Japanese and German children. We found no difference in metacognition between the two cultural groups. By contrast, Japanese children showed lower performance than German children replicating cultural differences in mindreading. Finally, metacognition and mindreading were not related in either group. We discuss the findings in light of the existing theoretical accounts of the relation between metacognition and mindreading.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Psychologie und Pädagogik > Department Psychologie
• Themengebiete: 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 150 Psychologie
• ISSN: 1053-8100
• Sprache: Englisch