GUISE AND GUILE - CHILDRENS UNDERSTANDING OF NARRATIVES IN WHICH THE PURPOSE OF PRETENSE IS DECEPTION

This study examined children's understanding of pretense and deception in folktales in which a villain deceives his victim by pretending to be someone else. In Experiment 1, the 3-year-olds distinguished the re al from the pretend persona, but neither understood the victim's false belief nor predicted that the villain would perpetrate the unwelcome act. In Experiment 2, revealing the villainous action facilitated S-ye ar-olds' predictions of this action during a retelling of the stories, but did not improve subjects' understanding of the victim's false bel ief. In Experiment 3, although the tasks were further refined to reduc e the possibility of misinterpretation, 3-year-olds again did not foll ow the deception. The results are discussed in relation to 3-year-olds ' difficulties with deceptive appearances and their understanding of a cting-as-if in pretense.