Young children's ability to identify the sources of their beliefs.

Abstract

Young children's ability to understand which experiences led to a belief was investigated in 3 studies. Three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds learned about the contents of a toy tunnel in three different ways : they saw the contents, were told about them, or felt them. Immediately after each trial, children were asked to state what was in the tunnel and also how they knew about the contents of the tunnel.