Publication Details

Abstract

The study deals with methodological and interpretive problems in the current research of early social cognition. The main focus is on implicit false belief tasks, which are considered to provide key evidence for the early presence of theory of mind. I argue that the research based on the analysis of visual behaviour does not offer a sufficient tool to reveal cognitive processes characteristic for mindreading, mainly due to the problem of underdetermination. However, alternative forms of research that emphasize the role of interactive context could offer a stronger and less ambiguous evidence of the extent to which preverbal children understand minds of others.