The relation between children' lying behaviour and their mental state understanding was investigated among a group of 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds (total N = 97). Two types of lying were examined: concealing‐transgression lying, which was assessed using a temptation resistance paradigm, and competitive game lying, which was assessed using a hide and seek paradigm. Mental state understanding was examined using a theory of mind scale that assessed children's understanding of diverse desire, diverse belief, knowledge access, false belief, and belief‐emotion. After controlling for age and verbal ability, children's concealing‐transgression lying was not related to any type of mental state understanding, whereas children's competitive game lying was significantly related to their understanding of diverse belief and belief‐emotion. These findings provide evidence that the cognitive correlates of young children's lying can differ as a function of the specific type of lie.

中文翻译：

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幼儿的说谎和早期心理状态理解

研究了一组3岁和4岁儿童的说谎行为与他们的心理状态理解之间的关系（总N= 97）。检查了两种类型的说谎：掩盖-犯罪说谎，这是使用诱惑抗性范式评估的；竞争游戏说谎，是使用躲藏和寻求范式，评估的。使用心理量表理论对心理状态理解进行了评估，该理论评估了儿童对各种欲望，各种信念，知识获取，错误信念和信念情感的理解。在控制了年龄和言语能力之后，儿童的隐瞒-犯法谎言与任何类型的心理状态理解均无关，而儿童的竞争性游戏谎言与他们对多种信念和信念-情感的理解显着相关。这些发现提供了证据，表明幼儿说谎的认知相关性可以根据特定的说谎类型而有所不同。