Development of preschoolers' emotion and false belief understanding: A longitudinal study

To explore the developmental trajectory of emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, and fear) and false belief understanding (an unexpected-location and an unexpected-contents task), we measured the performance of 3- and 4-year-olds 4 times at approximately half-yearly intervals. The results indicated that the children’s ability to understand emotions and false beliefs increased significantly at each time point in the first year and a half, but no significant increases were found in the last 6 months. The developmental trajectories of the understanding of emotions and false beliefs were similar during the 2 years, however, the developing track of the emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, and anger were different. Understanding of happiness developed earlier and faster than understanding of sadness, fear, and anger. In regard to understanding false beliefs, the children performed better in the unexpected- contents task than in the unexpected-location task. We found that a developmental relationship existed between emotion and false belief understanding.