Children's Discovery of the Active Mind

During the past 25 years, a great deal of research and theory has addressed the development of young children s understanding of mental states such as knowledge, beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions. Although developments in children s understanding of the mind subsequent to early childhood has received less attention, in recent years a growing body of research has emerged examining understanding of psychological functioning during middle and late childhood. Combined with the literature on adolescent epistemological development, this research provides a broader picture of age-related changes in children s understanding of the mind.§Guided by the goals of describing developmental changes in children s concepts of cognitive functioning and identifying sources of information that contribute to learning about cognition, Children s Discovery of the Active Mind organizes empirical literature concerning the development of children s knowledge of cognitive activities from early childhood to adolescence and presents a conceptual framework that integrates children s introspective activities with social influences on development. Bringing together theoretical and empirical work from developmental, cognitive, and social psychology, the author argues that rather than depending upon a single source of information, developmental progress is driven by combinations of children s conceptual knowledge of mental functioning, children s phenomenological awareness of their own cognitive activities, and children s social experience.