Metacognition and mindreading in young children: A cross-cultural study

Sunae Kim (1) , Beate Sodian (2) , Markus Paulus (2) , Atsushi Senju (3) , Akiko Okuno (4) , Mika Ueno (4) , Shoji Itakura (5) , Joélle Proust (6)

1 ELTE - Eötvös Loránd University
2 LMU - Ludwig Maximilian University [Munich] = Ludwig Maximilians Universität München
3 University of London [London]
4 Doshisha University [Kyoto]
5 Kyoto University
6 IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod

Prior studies document cross cultural variation in the developmental onset of mindreading. In particular, Japanese children are reported to pass a standard false belief task later than children from Western countries. By contrast, we know little about cross-cultural variation in young children’s metacognitive abilities. Moreover, one prominent theoretical discussion in developmental psychology focuses on the relation between metacognition and mindreading. Here we investigated the relation between mindreading and metacognition (both implicit and explicit) by testing 4-year-old Japanese and German children. We found no difference in metacognition between the two cultural groups. By contrast, Japanese children showed lower performance than German children replicating cultural differences in mindreading. Finally, metacognition and mindreading were not related in either group. We discuss the findings in light of the existing theoretical accounts of the relation between metacognition and mindreading.

Mots clés: Metacognition; Mindreading; False belief; Cross-cultural; Young children

Domaines: Sciences cognitives

Sunae Kim, Beate Sodian, Markus Paulus, Atsushi Senju, Akiko Okuno, et al.. Metacognition and mindreading in young children: A cross-cultural study. Consciousness and Cognition, 2020, 85, pp.103017. ⟨10.1016/j.concog.2020.103017⟩. ⟨hal-04033937⟩