The Effect Of Theory Of Mind And Executive Function On Children's Lie-telling

In daily life,children have always been instructed not to lie by their parents and teachers.However,from the perspective of individual development,the emergence and development of early lying behaviors are reflection of children's normative social and cognitive development.It was only later in life that frequent and inappropriate use of lying can became a problem behavior and be related to misconduct or crime.Therefore,the research on the development of children's lie-telling behaviors cannot only contribute to the understanding of how normative lie-telling behaviors develop,but also how lie-telling turn from normal behavior into problem one.In addition,this knowledge can be used as guidance to enact effective measures to avoid this transition.Normally,children's lies evolve from simple lies to strategic lies.The existing researches have provided evidences to confirm that the development of children's lying behavior is related to the development of their executive function(EF)and theory of mind(ToM).However,there are still some unsolved issues in the detailed relationship.For example,due to the lack of distinction between willingness and capability,researchers may misestimate children's ability to lie;The relation between lying and different components of EF is still not clear;The relationship between different levels of lie and different orders of ToM is also unclear.By ruling out the influence of willingness,the present study explores the process of 4-5 years old children's development from simple lies to strategic ones and how this process is influenced by their EF and ToM.The present study consists of two experiments:The first experiment explores the effect of first-order ToM and EF on children's first-order lie-telling behavior(simple lies).A "Hide and Seek" task is used to measure children's ability of first-order lie-telling with the frequency of lie-telling during the task as the index(5 chances to lie).A Spatial Stroop task and Digit Backward task are used to measured children's inhibitory control,cognitive flexibility and verbal working memory separately;Two first-order ToM stories are used to measures children's first-order ToM understanding.All children receive all tasks.The hypotheses of this experiment are 1)Most 4-5 years old children are capable of first-order lie-telling 2)Children's first-order ToM and EF have effect on children's first-order lie-telling.The second experiment explores the effect of ToM and EF on children's second-order lie-telling behavior(strategic lies).Those children who can fully master first-order lie-telling(lay 5 times in the first experiment)are selected into the second experiment.A adapted version of "Hide and Find" task is used to measure children's ability of second-order lie-telling,using the frequency of lie-telling(5 chances to lie)during the task as the index;Two second-order ToM stories are used to measures children's second-order ToM understanding.All children receive all tasks.The EF and first-order ToM scores from Experiment 1 are also used in this experiment.The hypotheses of this experiment are 1)some 4-5 years-old children are capable of second-order lie-telling 2)Children's second-order ToM and EF have effect on children's second-order lie-telling.After the experiment,the results were analyzed.The result shows the following conclusion:1)Most 4-5 years old children are capable of telling simple strategic lies;2)Children with better ToM understanding are better at lie-telling;4)The development from first-order ToM understanding to second-order ToM understanding have an effect on the development from simple lies to strategic lies;5)EF has an effect on whether children are capable of telling strategic lies and this effect is mediated by their ToM understanding.