This project will investigate the development of children's knowledge concerning people's mental representations of perceived objects and events, conceived as a form of metacognitive and social-cognitive development. Of particular interest to this project is the young child's developing ability to identify and think about the mental representations """"""""appears to be now, under these perceptual conditions"""""""" and """"""""really is"""""""", both when these representations occur within the self (""""""""appearance-reality"""""""" tasks), and when they occur within another person whose perspective differs from the self's (perceptual and conceptual perspective-taking tasks). Recent research by the applicant suggests that many 3-year-old children show surprisingly profound and hard to overcome difficulties in thinking about how things presently appear to them and how they really and enduringly are, when the appearance and the reality differ. Many of the proposed studies are designed to try to explain these difficulties, and, more generally, to provide additional insight into the early development of knowledge about the appearance-reality distinction and related competencies. Other studies will investigate perspective-taking abilities, and also possible developmental links between these abilities and appearance-reality knowledge.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01MH040687-01
Application #
3378952
Study Section
Cognition, Emotion, and Personality Research Review Committee (CEP)
Project Start
1985-07-01
Project End
1988-06-30
Budget Start
1985-07-01
Budget End
1986-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1985
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Stanford University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
800771545
City
Stanford
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94305
Flavell, J H; Flavell, E R; Green, F L (2001) Development of children's understanding of connections between thinking and feeling. Psychol Sci 12:430-2
Flavell, J H; Green, F L; Flavell, E R et al. (1997) The development of children's knowledge about inner speech. Child Dev 68:39-47
Lagattuta, K H; Wellman, H M; Flavell, J H (1997) Preschoolers' understanding of the link between thinking and feeling: cognitive cuing and emotional change. Child Dev 68:1081-104
Flavell, J H; Green, F L; Flavell, E R (1995) Young children's knowledge about thinking. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 60:1-96;discussion 97-114
Lyon, T D; Flavell, J H (1994) Young children's understanding of ""remember"" and ""forget"". Child Dev 65:1357-71
Lyon, T D; Flavell, J H (1993) Young children's understanding of forgetting over time. Child Dev 64:789-800
Flavell, J H; Green, F L; Flavell, E R (1993) Children's understanding of the stream of consciousness. Child Dev 64:387-98
O'Neill, D K; Astington, J W; Flavell, J H (1992) Young children's understanding of the role that sensory experiences play in knowledge acquisition. Child Dev 63:474-90
Moses, L J; Flavell, J H (1990) Inferring false beliefs from actions and reactions. Child Dev 61:929-45
Lillard, A S; Flavell, J H (1990) Young children's preference for mental state versus behavioral descriptions of human action. Child Dev 61:731-41

Showing the most recent 10 out of 11 publications