The Emergence of the Independent Self: Autobiographical Memory as a Mediator of False Belief Understanding and Sociocultural Motive Orientation in Cameroonian and German Preschoolers

Applying a preschooler version of an instrument measuring implicit motives (Operant Multimotive Test), the authors investigated the interrelations of autobiographical memory, theory of mind, and implicit motives in the preschool years. Four- to 6-year-old children from Bamenda (Cameroon, N = 30) and Osnabrück (Germany, N = 52) were tested using a location false belief task, and a second order task as measures for theory of mind and a version of Wang and Leichtman’s task on children’s narratives as a measure of autobiographical memory coded with the Cognitive Complexity Scoring Manual. Regression analyses for mediator effects while controlling for moderating effects of culture show that cognitive complexity of autobiographical memory mediates the relationship of mentalistic abilities and sociocultural orientation of implicit motivation. Results are discussed within the framework of the independent-interdependent construal of the self.