Reasoning about beliefs: A human specialization?

A recent meta-analysis performed by Wellman, Cross, and Watson clears the a ir surrounding young children's performance on tests of false belief by sho wing that it is highly likely that there is some type of conceptual develop ment between 3 and 5 years of age that supports improved task performance. The data concerning the evolutionary origin of these abilities, however, is considerably less clear Nonetheless, there is some reason to suspect that theory of mind is unique to our species, and that its original function was to provide a more abstract level of describing ancient behavioral patterns (such as deception, reconciliation, and gaze following)-behaviors that hum ans share in common with many other species. Thus, the initial selective ad vantage of theory of mind may have been because it increased the flexibilit y of already-existing behaviors, not because it generated scores of radical ly new ones.