Inhibition in the Belief-desire Reasoning

YU Wen; LIU Xi-Beng; ZHU Li-Qi

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2013, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (3) : 659-662.

Inhibition in the Belief-desire Reasoning

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Abstract

The current study investigated how inhibition is processed in belief-desire reasoning and tested two models of inhibition proposed by Leslie based on the Theory of Mind Mechanism and Selection Procession. Two experiments were conducted using three location double-inhibitive task and their variant versions, with 216 children aged 4 to 6 year old, to investigate respectively how the mental set and equality of the three locations would influence children’s preference. Results showed that both factors play a role in influencing children’s behaviors. Removing the effects of the two factors, children's behaviors could be explained by Leslie’s Inhibition of Return model, that is, children’s processing of inhibition is serial in double-inhibition task.

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theory of mind / ToMM-SP / avoidance false-belief task / inhibition of inhibition / inhibition of return

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Inhibition in the Belief-desire Reasoning[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2013, 36(3): 659-662

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