YOUNG CHILDRENS UNDERSTANDING OF THE MIND-BODY DISTINCTION

4 experiments investigated children's understanding of the mind-body d istinction. Children of ages 4 and 5 recognized not only the different ial modifiability of changeable versus unchangeable human properties a nd bodily versus mental properties, but also the independence of activ ities of bodily organs from a person's intention (Experiment 1). When presented 3 types of causal explanations (i.e., intentional, vitalisti c, mechanical), 6-year-olds chose most often as most plausible for bod ily functions vitalistic explanations (i.e., those ascribing the pheno mena to a relevant bodily organ's initiative and effortful engagement in activity); 8-year-olds chose the vitalistic explanations second mos t often, following mechanical ones (Experiment 2). However, 6-year-old s, as well as 8-year-olds and adults, did not always choose vitalistic explanations over intentional explanations (Experiment 3); whereas th ey tended to prefer vitalistic explanations for biological phenomena, they predominantly accepted intentional ones for psychological phenome na (Experiment 3A). These results suggest that children as young as 6 years of age have acquired a form of biology as an autonomous domain w hich is separate from that of psychology.