The Decision component of the Activation-Decision-Construction-Action-Theory (ADCAT) utilizes a cost-benefit formula to explain the cognitive, motivational and social processes involved in deception. Three prior studies suggest that ADCAT can be used to predict adults' future deceptive behavior; however, no study has assessed the potential relevance of ADCAT with children. The present study is the first to date to examine whether this cost-benefit formula can predict children's hypothetical decisions to tell three types of lies, and whether there are specific developmental factors that need to be considered. The results indicate that the cost-benefit formula was only effective for predicting children's hypothetical lies for self-gain at no cost to another (Self-No Cost lies) and lies for others when there was a personal cost (Other-Cost to Self). More specifically, expected value of telling the truth was related to lower willingness to tell hypothetical Self-No Cost and Other-Cost to Self lies. On the other hand, the expected value of lying was not related to children's hypothetical decisions to tell Self-No Cost, Self-Cost to Other or Other-Cost to Self lies. Children's inhibitory control and theory of mind were significant covariates for some of the ADCAT predictor variables and children's hypothetical truth and lying behaviors. Altogether, these findings indicate that the effectiveness of the ADCAT cost-benefit formula for predicting children's lying behavior is affected by developmental factors and the type of lie being analyzed.

Activation-Decision-Construction-Action-Theory (ADCAT) 的决策部分利用成本收益公式来解释欺骗中涉及的认知、动机和社会过程。先前的三项研究表明，ADCAT可用于预测成年人未来的欺骗行为。然而，没有研究评估 ADCAT 与儿童的潜在相关性。本研究是迄今为止第一个检验这种成本收益公式是否可以预测儿童在讲述三种类型的谎言时做出的假设决定，以及是否需要考虑特定的发展因素。结果表明，成本收益公式仅对预测儿童 假设性的谎言是为了不为他人付出代价的自我利益（Self-No Cost lie），而在有个人成本的情况下为他人撒谎（Other-Cost to Self）。更具体地说，说实话的预期价值与说出假设的“自我无成本”和“其他成本对自我”谎言的意愿较低有关。另一方面，撒谎的预期价值与孩子们的假设决定无关，这些决定是告诉自己没有成本、自我成本对他人或其他成本对自己说谎。儿童的抑制控制和心理理论是一些 ADCAT 预测变量和儿童假设真相和说谎行为的重要协变量。总而言之，这些发现表明 ADCAT 成本效益公式在预测儿童