Facial expression vs. eye direction: Young children's choices in ascribing mental states

The ability to utilize nonverbal cues is important for children's development of social skills. The theory-of-mind literature has focused on children's ability to perceive eye direction, but facial expression is also an important cue to mental states. Given the significance of facial expression, it may be important to determine how and when children use both eye direction and facial expression to solve social tasks. Two hundred and eleven children, ages 2--8 years, completed a variant of Baron-Cohen's "Charlie and the Sweets" task and a task which tested their comprehension of knowledge states. Results suggest that children under five prefer facial expression over eye direction when attributing desire and knowledge. Findings also reveal that knowing was a more difficult for children to infer. Given the current data, future studies and models of theory of mind may need to consider the role of affect along with that of eye direction.