The mechanism of deception and understanding of mind : Is young children's deception based on the inference of other's mind?

本研究的目的是阐明幼儿欺骗的机制，即在心理理论假设的基础上阐明幼儿如何欺骗他人的心理。特别是，本研究探讨了幼儿是否可以欺骗，如果他们能够承认对方的想法，以及幼儿是否可以欺骗后，他们推断对方的想法。本研究通过对幼儿的观察，考察幼儿是否表现出理解心理的行为，包括欺骗行为，以及欺骗行为是否与理解心理有关。因此，我们观察了3岁、4岁和5岁幼儿园儿童的行为。结果表明，欺骗行为与理解他人心理的能力有关。这项研究的第二个目的是当幼儿可以欺骗。通过对三、四、五岁儿童的行为分析，对这一问题进行了研究。结果表明，4岁以上的儿童能够理解欺骗。这些结果表明，承认欺骗将与心灵的理解。然而，这些结果也表明，承认并不总是与心灵的理解相同。相反，它表明欺骗将独立于对心灵的理解。并对产生这种结果的原因进行了讨论。

The aim of this study was to clarify the mechanism of young children's deception ; it was to clarify how young children deceive the other's mind based on the hypothesis of the theory of mind. Especially, this study examined whether young children can deceive if they can acknowledge the other's mind, and whether young children can deceive after they infer the other's mind. In this study it was examined whether young children behave understanding mind including deception whether the deception is related to the understanding of the mind by observing young children. So the behavior of three, four, and five years old children in kindergarten was observed. The result suggested that the deception would be related to the ability of understanding of other's mind. The second purpose of this study was when young children can deceive. This problem was examined by analyzing the behavior of three, four and five year old children. The result showed that children more than four years old can understand the deception. These results suggest that the acknowledgement of deception would be related to the understanding of the mind. However, these results also suggest that the acknowledgement would not always be same with the understanding of the mind. Rather, it suggested that the deception would be independent to the understanding of the mind. The cause of this result was discussed.