On Representing That: The Asymmetry Between Belief and Desire in Children's Theory of Mind

Belief and desire are sometimes treated as equivalent cornponents in theories of action (Aristotle’s practical syllogism) or like symmetrical mirror images among the different mental states (Searle, 1983). On the basis of such analyses, one might expect that belief and desire should be understood by young children at about the same time; however, there is accumulating evidence that children understand the role of desire much earlier than that of belief, even in well-controlled contexts of apparently equal complexity.