IELTS® Academic Reading Practice 74

The answer is G. Paragraph G directly discusses research showing that young children are aware of the difference between mental states and external reality before the age of four. It gives specific examples of children’s actions and speech that reveal this ability, and then states, “the social abilities of children indicate that they are aware of the difference between mental states and external reality at ages younger than four.”

Associated Text:
the social abilities of children indicate that they are aware of the difference between mental states and external reality at ages younger than four.

The answer is H. In paragraph H, Harris’s alternative explanation is introduced, challenging the notion that children passing the false belief task necessarily understand others' beliefs. Instead, he claims children may be using ‘simulation’ to predict what they would do if they were in the story, not truly appreciating another’s beliefs.

Associated Text:
He proposed that children use ‘simulation’. This involves putting yourself in the other person’s position, and then trying to predict what the other person would do. Thus, success on false belief tasks can be explained by children trying to imagine what they would do if they were a character in the stories, rather than children being able to appreciate the beliefs of other people.

The answer is B. Paragraph B describes the Maxi false belief task and clearly shows that children under four usually state that Maxi will look in the green cupboard (where the chocolate was moved), revealing their failure to comprehend that others may hold beliefs different from reality, and that their own knowledge of the situation is not shared by Maxi.

Associated Text:
Most children under four years gave the incorrect answer, that Maxi will look in the green cupboard. Those over four years tended to give the correct answer, that Maxi will look in the blue cupboard. The incorrect answers indicated that the younger children did not understand that Maxi’s beliefs and representations no longer matched the actual state of the world, and they failed to appreciate that Maxi will act on the basis of his beliefs rather than the way that the world is actually organized.

The answer is F. Paragraph F discusses research on children in extended families (in Crete and Cyprus) and indicates that “children who socially interact with more adults have more friends. And those who have more older siblings tend to pass TOM tasks at a slightly earlier age.” This demonstrates the finding that such children, due to social interaction with adults, often perform better on the TOM test.

Associated Text:
They found that children who socially interact with more adults have more friends. And those who have more older siblings tend to pass TOM tasks at a slightly earlier age than other children.

The answer is C. Paragraph C notes that Baron-Cohen’s simpler version of the Maxi task was created to tackle “criticisms that younger children may have been affected by the complexity and too much information of the story in the task described above,” effectively ruling out the possibility that results are influenced by the sophistication of reasoning required.

Associated Text:
A simpler version of the Maxi task was devised by Baron-Cohen to take account of criticisms that younger children may have been affected by the complexity and too much information of the story in the task described above.

The answer is E. Paragraph E discusses the finding by Meins and colleagues that mind mindedness – the way a mother discusses the infant’s feelings and behaviors in terms of mental states – is associated with the development of theory-of-mind abilities in children.

Associated Text:
Meins and her colleagues have found that what they term mind mindedness in maternal speech to six-month old infants is related to both security of attachment and to TOM abilities. Mind Mindedness involves speech that discusses infants’ feelings and explains their behavior in terms of mental stages

The answer is D. Paragraph D addresses Leslie’s view that before 18 months, children rarely demonstrate pretense, and that they must develop the capacity to distinguish between pretend and reality, allowing pretend play to emerge. This directly suggests the ability to play pretend comes after distinguishing fantasy from reality.

Associated Text:
Leslie argues that, before 18 months, children treat the world in a literal way and rarely demonstrate pretense. He also argues that it is necessary for the cognitive system to distinguish between what is pretend and what is real. If children were not able to do this, they would not be able to distinguish imaginary from reality. Leslie suggested that this pretend play becomes possible because of the presence of de-coupler that copies primary representations to secondary representations.