Prior studies document cross cultural variation in the developmental onset of mindreading. In particular, Japanese children are reported to pass a standard false belief task later than children from Western countries. By contrast, we know little about cross-cultural variation in young children’s metacognitive abilities. Moreover, one prominent theoretical discussion in developmental psychology focuses on the relation between metacognition and mindreading. Here we investigated the relation between mindreading and metacognition (both implicit and explicit) by testing 4-year-old Japanese and German children. We found no difference in metacognition between the two cultural groups. By contrast, Japanese children showed lower performance than German children replicating cultural differences in mindreading. Finally, metacognition and mindreading were not related in either group. We discuss the findings in light of the existing theoretical accounts of the relation between metacognition and mindreading.

先前的研究记录了读心术发展过程中的跨文化差异。特别是，据报道，日本儿童比西方国家的儿童更晚通过标准的错误信念任务。相比之下，我们对幼儿元认知能力的跨文化变异知之甚少。此外，发展心理学中的一项重要理论讨论侧重于元认知与读心术之间的关系。在这里，我们通过测试 4 岁的日本和德国儿童来研究读心术和元认知（内隐和外显）之间的关系。我们发现两个文化群体之间的元认知没有差异。相比之下，日本儿童在读心术方面表现出比德国儿童低的文化差异。最后，元认知和读心术在两组中均不相关。我们根据有关元认知和读心术之间关系的现有理论解释来讨论这些发现。