Two‐year‐olds’ sensitivity to a parent's knowledge state: Mind reading or contextual cues?

Abstract

Two experiments were designed to determine if children at 27 and 33 months of age tailor their communicative behaviours to the knowledge states of their social partners. In each study, an experimenter placed a desirable object into one of two opaque containers. The child was then required to ask for a parent's assistance in retrieving the object. In one condition, the parent covered her eyes during sticker placement (parent ignorant condition); in a second condition, the parent's eyes were open during sticker placement (parent knowledgeable condition); and in a third condition, the parent first covered her eyes but then opened them during placement of the sticker (sham ignorant condition). The results indicated that children at both ages were appropriately employing a pointing gesture more often in the parent ignorant condition than in the parent knowledgeable condition. However, children responded to the sham hiding condition differently at the two ages. In the sham condition, older children appropriately gestured less than in the parent ignorant condition. However, the younger children were equally likely to use gestures in the sham condition and the parent ignorant condition. Considered together, the data suggest that different factors are controlling the selective use of gestures in these two age groups.