Abstract
Researchers have investigated young children's awareness of their own mental activity, but have not examined the factors contributing to the development of this introspective ability. The present study tested the hypothesis that recursive cognition about children's own mental states from other people's points of view (second-order false-belief understanding) was related to the development of introspective ability. In an experiment, 7-9 year old children (N=52) performed an introspection task and a second-order false-belief task. The results showed that children who passed the second-order false-belief task performed better on the introspection task than those who failed. This finding supported the hypothesis that understanding of second-order mental representation was related to the development of introspective ability. The discussion focused on possible interactions between these abilities, emphasizing the social-cognitive function of recursive thinking.
