Do young children understand the objectivity of reality?

Abstract

Much research has examined young children’s (lack of) understanding of the subjectivity of beliefs, yet the other side of the issue has remained overlooked: Do young children understand the objectivity of reality? In this study, 83 children from 4 to 5 years of age completed: (i) the False Belief Task, which assessed children’s understanding that a character’s subjective beliefs may not correspond to an altered objective reality and (ii) a novel Objective Reality Task, which assessed children’s understanding that the objective reality may not correspond to a character’s altered subjective beliefs. Performances on the two tasks improved in similar trajectories from 4 to 5 years of age and were correlated, including when controlling for age, suggesting similar underlying developmental processes. These findings provide empirical support for the analytical supposition that subjectivity and objectivity are complementary forms of understanding.