ABSTRACT
Although the modern literature on mindreading originated with a question about chimpanzees (Premack & Woodruff, 1978), much of the running since then has been made in studies of human development. Not only is this by far the largest literature on mindreading, but many of the central theoretical themes and most prominent empirical paradigms have arisen out of research on children. The current chapter, therefore, is not just designed to provide evidence bearing on questions about the cognitive basis of mindreading, but also to give important background information for the rest of the book. In this chapter I shall describe evidence from typically developing children aged 2-years upwards, followed by evidence from atypical development. These studies set the long-standing benchmarks in terms of theories, paradigms and, until recently, age of acquisition for children's mindreading.
