Traditionally, it had been assumed that meta-representational Theory of Mind (ToM) emerges around the age of 4 when children come to master standard false belief (FB) tasks. More recent research with various implicit measures, though, has documented much earlier competence and thus challenged the traditional picture. In interactive FB tasks, for instance, infants have been shown to track an interlocutor's false or true belief when interpreting her ambiguous communicative acts (Southgate et al. 2010 Dev. Sci.13, 907–912. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00946.x)). However, several replication attempts so far have produced mixed findings (e.g. Dörrenberg et al. 2018 Cogn. Dev.46, 12–30. (doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.01.001); Grosse Wiesmann et al. 2017 Dev. Sci.20, e12445. (doi:10.1111/desc.12445); Király et al. 2018 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA115, 11 477–11 482. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1803505115)). Therefore, we conducted a systematic replication study, across two laboratories, of an influential interactive FB task (the so-called ‘Sefo’ tasks by Southgate et al. 2010 Dev. Sci.13, 907–912. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00946.x)). First, we implemented close direct replications with the original age group (17-month-olds) and compared their performance to those of 3-year-olds. Second, we designed conceptual replications with modifications and improvements regarding pragmatic ambiguities for 2-year-olds. Third, we validated the task with explicit verbal test versions in older children and adults. Results revealed the following: the original results could not be replicated, and there was no evidence for FB understanding measured by the Sefo task in any age group except for adults. Comparisons to explicit FB tasks suggest that the Sefo task may not be a sensitive measure of FB understanding in children and even underestimate their ToM abilities. The findings add to the growing replication crisis in implicit ToM research and highlight the challenge of developing sensitive, reliable and valid measures of early implicit social cognition.

传统上，人们假设当儿童完成标准的虚假信念（FB）任务时，元表示心理理论（ToM）就会在4岁左右出现。但是，最新的有关各种隐性措施的研究已经证明了更早的能力，因此对传统情况提出了挑战。在互动FB任务，例如，婴儿已被解释她暧昧的交际行为（索斯盖特当跟踪对话者的或真或假的信仰等人2010年开发科学。13，907-912（DOI：10.1111 / j.1467 -7687.2009.00946.x​​）。然而，有几个复制的尝试到目前为止已产生的混合结果（例如Dörrenberg等人。2018 COGN。开发。46，12-30。（doi：10.1016 / j.cogdev.2018.01.001）; Grosse Wiesmann等。2017开发 科学 20，e12445。（doi：10.1111 / desc.12445）; Király等。2018 PROC。Natl Acad。科学 USA 115，11 477-11 482.（DOI：10.1073 / pnas.1803505115））。因此，我们进行了系统的重复研究，在两个实验室，一个有影响力的互动FB任务（由南门所谓的“Sefo”任务等。2010开发，科学。13，907–912。（doi：10.1111 / j.1467-7687.2009.00946.x​​））。首先，我们对原始年龄段（17个月大的孩子）实施了直接复制，并将其表现与3岁大的孩子进行了比较。其次，我们设计了概念性的复制品，并对两岁儿童的实用歧义进行了修改和改进。第三，我们通过年龄较大的儿童和成人的显式口头测试版本验证了该任务。结果揭示了以下几点：原始结果无法复制，并且没有证据表明Sefo任务可以测量FB理解力的任何年龄段（成人除外）。与显式FB任务的比较表明，Sefo任务可能不是对儿童FB理解的敏感度量，甚至低估了他们的ToM能力。