Children and Theory of Mind; Comparison between Children's Ability to Children and Theory of Mind; Comparison between Children's Ability to Understand Trying Actions and Pretend Actions in a Behavior Model Analysis

Abstract

Children who have just reached 2 years old do engage in activities with symbolic elements. Developmental psychologist argue that this is a cognitive developmental feature connected to mind processes development. Some of them discuss about using indented/pretended activities as fact of child’ understanding. The research involved 20 children 18 to 25 months old and 25 children 25-36 months old. Children were applied the behavioral protocol of imaginary and intentional behavior. Children's reactions to these actions is observed, measured and assessed using behavioral protocol activities. The purpose of this study is to explore the ability of children 20 to 36 months to understand the intentional actions against symbolic/pretended actions. This study is theoretically based on cognitive development theories in early childhood, focusing on the use of symbolic functions that enable children involvement in the play. Certain elements of the study were stimulated by new theories on the cognitive functioning of representative schemes, ToM and comprehension skills during early childhood. The results of the study show a tendency of children to understand the purpose of the two behavioral structures answered in accordance with the typology behavior: after the demonstration of intentional models children react intentionally and after the demonstration of pretend actions children reacted with imaginative / symbolic actions. The results over the ability to distinguish intention from pretend is then discussed in the Theory of Mind perspective.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n1s1p19