Children's understanding of false beliefs in different domains: Affective vs. physical

This study compared che development of other false belief and representatio nal change knowledge in the affective and physical domains. Pre-school chil dren (ages 3-4 years) participated in unexpected contents types of physical tasks and similar affective casks. There were no domain differences in the children's performance; however, a marginal interaction with age was noted with older children performing better on the physical tasks than younger o nes, but no age difference was found for che affective tasks. Children's kn owledge of other false belief and representational change was also similar. Controlling for age, partial correlations between the representational cha nge and other false belief questions were significant. in the affective and physical domains. Partial correlations investigating the relationships acr oss domains indicated a significant relationship for representational chang e, but not for other false belief. These results suggest that other false b elief knowledge and representational change knowledge develop concurrently in the affective and physical domains.