{"pk":49664,"title":"It takes one to know one: Theory of mind helps children to detect lies that are revealed by semantic leakage","subtitle":null,"abstract":"<p>Can children detect a lie when the liar unintentionally reveals essential information (displaying so-called semantic leakage)? Furthermore, because previous research found that theory of mind (ToM) is a factor in children's lie production ability, what role does ToM play in their lie detection ability? An experiment was carried out with 128 Dutch-speaking children (4 - 14 years old). Children's lie detection ability was assessed using a story in which one of the characters produced a lie signalled by semantic leakage. A false-belief task was used to test children's first-order ToM (Kevin thinks that…) and second-order ToM (Marieke thinks that Kevin thinks that…). Children were 73% accurate in identifying the liar by referring to semantic leakage. Their performance improved with age, with 12-year-olds showing ceiling performance. Finaly, first-order ToM was a significant predictor, even after controlling for age, suggesting that lie production and lie detection partly rely on shared cognitive functions.</p>","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Linguistics; Psychology; Cognitive development; Semantics of language; Theory of Mind"}],"section":"Papers with Poster Presentation","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8mk9243f","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Özlem","middle_name":"","last_name":"Yeter","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Groningen","department":""},{"first_name":"Barteld","middle_name":"P.","last_name":"Kooi","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Groningen","department":""},{"first_name":"Rineke","middle_name":"","last_name":"Verbrugge","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Groningen","department":""},{"first_name":"Petra","middle_name":"","last_name":"Hendriks","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Groningen","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2025-01-01T21:00:00+03:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/49664/galley/37626/download/"}]}