ABSTRACT
The executive function tasks on which children around this age markedly improve typically require the inhibition of some response strategy or cognitive set. Frye et al. argued that the false belief task itself requires reasoning with embedded conditionals and, therefore, it is the developing ability to engage in such reasoning that underlies the developmental link between false belief test performance and performance on executive function tasks like card sorting and the ramp task. Shultz et al. showed that children were quite able to differentiate intended from non-intended actions when they could compare what they were instructed to achieve with what they actually achieved. For instance, if when interlacing one’s fingers one is instructed to move a particular finger, then one tends to make errors. CCC theory explains this developmental relation by a common cognitive complexity required for executive control and understanding false belief.
