Call J, Tomasello M
Department of Psychology, Emory University, USA.
J Comp Psychol. 1998 Jun;112(2):192-206. doi: 10.1037/0735-7036.112.2.192.
This study investigates the understanding of others' intentions in 2- and 3-year-old children, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). During training, subjects learned to use a discriminative cue to select a baited box. During testing, the experimenter placed a marker on top of the baited box to inform the subject of the reward's location. However, the experimenter also accidentally dropped the marker on top of an unbaited box, so that during any given trial the experimenter marked 2 boxes, 1 intentionally and 1 accidentally. All 3 species preferentially selected the box the experimenter had marked intentionally (especially during the initial trials), with 3-year-old children presenting the most robust results. These findings suggest that subjects understood something about the experimenter's intentions. The authors speculate that understanding of others' intentions may precede the understanding of others' beliefs both at the ontogenetic and phylogenetic levels.
本研究调查了2岁和3岁儿童、黑猩猩（黑猩猩属）及红毛猩猩（婆罗洲猩猩）对他人意图的理解。在训练过程中，受试者学会使用辨别线索来选择装有诱饵的盒子。在测试过程中，实验者在装有诱饵的盒子顶部放置一个标记，以告知受试者奖励的位置。然而，实验者也不小心将标记掉落在了未装诱饵的盒子顶部，因此在任何给定的试验中，实验者标记了2个盒子，1个是故意标记的，1个是不小心标记的。所有这3个物种都优先选择实验者故意标记的盒子（尤其是在最初的试验中），3岁儿童的结果最为明显。这些发现表明，受试者理解了关于实验者意图的某些信息。作者推测，在个体发育和系统发育层面，对他人意图的理解可能先于对他人信念的理解。
