@article{c78e2707bf6c444894fbc1fc0fb33392,
title = "Integrating Relationship Constructs and Emotional Experience into False Belief Tasks in Preschool Children",
author = "Doug Symons and Elizabeth McLaughlin and Chris Moore and Stephany Morine",
note = "Funding Information: Themes of separation from attachment figures are involved when caregivers are integrated into standard theory of mind tasks in which objects or toys are located. Two experiments test the hypothesis that searching for a caregiver would interfere with false belief performance and be related to a child{\textquoteright}s emotional awareness. Experiment 1 consisted of a cross-sectional study of three-to five-year-old children administered false belief tasks related to object identity, object location, and caregiver location, i.e., false belief tasks where story characters became separated from a parent and had to locate them. As expected, there were age-related improvements in false belief performance to above-chance levels during object identity and object location tasks, but performance on the caregiver location tasks showed no age-related improvement and at age five was poorer than other tasks. Emotional integration also varied with task. Children who were relatively more aware of emotions were more likely to pass tasks involving objects, and queries of emotions during tasks were related to false beliefs This research was initiated while the first author was on sabbatical leave at Dalhousie University and supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC 410-93-0929). Data were presented at the International Congress of Psychology, Montreal PQ CANADA, August 1996 (study 1) and the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington DC, April 1997 (study 2). Thanks go to children who participated, as well as the daycares and elementary schools of King{\textquoteright}s County that supported the project. Special thanks go to Lana Noiles for data collection and scoring.",
year = "1997",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1006/jecp.1997.2416",
language = "English",
volume = "67",
pages = "423--447",
journal = "Journal of Experimental Child Psychology",
issn = "0022-0965",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "3",
}