ABSTRACT
A much heralded milestone in theory of mind (ToM) development is achievement
of a metarepresentational ToM. This ToM is an advanced understanding of mental
states that is based in the ability to maintain multiple, contrastive representations
of an object or event. This ability affords distinguishing mental states from reality
by keeping in mind both representations of reality and representations that contrast
with reality. A metarepresentational ToM is evident in behaviors such as false be-
lief (e.g., knowledge of another’s erroneous belief with respect to reality), distin-
guishing appearance from reality, and representational change (e.g., knowledge of
one’s own past false belief). A metarepresentational ToM is attained around age 4
to 5, as indicated by success on tasks that measure these metarepresentational be-
haviors (e.g., Astington, Harris, & Olson, 1988; J. H. Flavell, E. R. Flavell, &
Green, 1983; Gopnik & Astington, 1988; Perner, 1991).
