Development of intuitions about the controllability of different mental states

Seven-year-olds, 10-year-olds, and adults were asked to judge whether it would be hard or easy for a person voluntarily and intentionally to stop having each of 10 different mental states the person was currently having, and to explain their judgments. Five of the states were selected to be hard to extinguish deliberately (e.g., a strong desire) and 5 easy (e.g., a visual fixation). Results suggest that there is considerable development during the elementary school years in children's understanding of which mental states tend to be harder to control and which easier, and that older children and adults possess a rich store of intuitions about the nature of different mental states and about our ability to govern them. It was argued that the acquisition of such knowledge should have adaptive value for children.