Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Studies show that children succeed in perceptual access-based knowledge attribution before false belief attribution. Recent theories suggest that this may be due to the primacy of knowledge representations. However, to more accurately contrast knowledge and belief attributions, closely matched test scenarios are needed that are comparable in processing demands. In the current study, we tested 4- to 5-year-old children (n = 50) on a novel paradigm requiring more complex knowledge attributions that involve more comparable processing demands—such as egocentric ignorance and self and other retrospective updates—in relation to false belief attributions. Results showed that children performed well on this more complex knowledge attribution, suggesting that knowledge ascription is robust even under increased cognitive demands. However, we found that complex knowledge and false belief attributions were negatively related, suggesting a surprising pattern in which false belief inferences may be overgeneralized early in development.