Analyzing Children's Intellectual Development

One way to analyze children’s intellectual development is to assess their theory of mind. A theory of mind is a set of ideas that explain another person’s behavior, ideas, beliefs and desires, and it emerges in its most rudimentary form at around two years of age. By asking her questions used in the Smarties Task (which is widely used to test children’s theories of mind) I was able to have a glimpse into her development. The procedure used in the Smarties Task is very straightforward. First, I asked my niece if she would play a game with me, and answer a few questions about a bag of M&Ms. I showed her the bag of M&Ms, then I revealed to her that there were rocks – not M&Ms – in the bag. I asked her “What’s in the bag?” and she told me that there were rocks in the bag. Then, I asked her “Does the bag look like it has rocks in it, or does it look like it has candies in it?” She told me confidently that “it looks like it has rocks in it.” I asked her “What’s really inside the bag, are there rocks inside it, or are there really candies?” She
Her answers matched up with those of other children around her age. It is clear that she doesn’t understand the difference between appearance and reality, because she thinks that her mother would expect there to be rocks in the bag (even though it looks like a normal bag of M&Ms). Furthermore, my niece’s answers showed that she doesn’t understand the notion of false belief, which is essentially the idea that someone’s belief may be different from reality. This can be seen in her lack of acknowledgement that she initially thought that there were really M&Ms in the bag at first, or that her mother would think there were M&Ms in the bag. Since she knew the reality of the situation – that there were rocks in the bag – she thought that everybody else had to believe that there were rocks in