Children's Awareness and Usage of Intention Cues

IMAMOLU, E. OLCAY. Children's Awareness and Usage of Intention Cues. CiLD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 39-45. The effects of 2 levels of causality (intentional-accidental), outcome quality (good-bad), and affected object (human being-physical object) on the evaluations of acts and actors and the related response latencies of 4 age groups of 128 children (5-11 years) were measured using 8 stories and 2 4-point scales of good-bad and like-dislike. All subjects demonstrated an awareness of intentionality by showing a highly significant tendency to evaluate the accidental acts more slowly than the intentional ones. However, the weights given to intentions in their evaluations varied as a function not only of age but also of the type of object affected and to some degree the quality of the outcome. The results were explained by differentiating between children's awareness and usage of intentions and by stressing the role of differential socialization experiences.