A longitudinal, microgenetic study of the emergence of false belief understanding and inhibition skills

Two theories that attempt to explain the relationship between false belief understanding and inhibition skills were investigated.(1) theory of mind development improves self-control, and (2) executive control is necessary for developing a theory of mind A microgenetic approach was adopted, with a group of 21 children completing a battery of inhibition and false belief understanding tasks every four weeks for six phases of testing The results showed that the majority of children were able to perform well on a test of executive inhibition before having a good understanding of false beliefs, thus supporting theory (2). The results also illustrated that while the children's inhibition skills developed relatively gradually, their understanding of false beliefs progressed from a consistent lack of understanding through a period of unstable performance, during which some children failed tests that they had previously passed.