‘Are you Thinking what I'm Thinking?’ Bananas in Pyjamas as a Medium for Exploring Young Children's Understanding of Mind

Abstract

Young children's understanding of false belief beliefs which are inconsistent with reality, was investigated by using either the video or book of Magic Carpet, from the Bananas in Pyjamas series. Children who watched the video demonstrated a greater understanding of false belief than children who had the book read to them. However, there was no difference between groups in understanding of second-order beliefs (beliefs about beliefs), which indicates that the understanding of the book group may have been underestimated because of the nature of the task.