Children's perceptions of other people: mentalistic versus behavioristic descriptions of peers and adults

Are 3-year-old children capable of making mentalistic ascriptions to descri be the actions of adults as well as peers? Forty-four children (21 girls) a ged 3-0 to 3-11 viewed picture sets of adults and peers performing various activities. Children's descriptions of the pictures were coded as either me ntalistic or behavioristic. Children on average preferred mentalistic descr iptions of adults as well as peers. Preference for mentalistic descriptions was unrelated to verbal ability or age. Meta-analytic techniques showed th e consistency of present results with past findings based upon both similar methods and natural language observations of linguistic production. Meta-a nalysis also revealed a strong effect of situational context on childrens p references for mentalistic versus behavioristic descriptions of others, wit h item content accounting for tip to 70% of variance in child responses.