Development of Conceptual Reasoning versus Understanding of Children's Theory of Mind and Extraordinary (Supernatural) Minds during Middle Childhood

It is still not known how a person acquires the ability to think about extraordinary minds. This study examined the point at which a significant distinction appears, the conceptual differentiation of the ordinary mind from the extraordinary mind. Additionally, it examined whether this distance is related to a certain type of conceptual knowledge and understanding of religious concepts. The study involved 117 children from Poland within the age range of 3 to 7 years old (56% girls; 44% boys). The following methods were used: The Deceptive Box Task, The Conceptual reasoning scale from the IDS-P, and the Short test of understanding religious concepts. The obtained results are closer to one of the hypotheses discussed in this area-the anthropomorphism hypothesis, which assumes that after gaining competence in understanding ordinary minds, children begin to build and understand the competencies of extraordinary minds.