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Theory of mind is a precursor to the development of metacognition (Lecce, Demicheli, Zocchi, & Palladino, 2015). Young children know that the mind is where thinking takes place. Between 3 and 5, children come to understand that they can know something that others do not (essential for success on false-belief tasks), that their thoughts cannot be observed, and that there are individual differences in mental states (Pillow, 2008). They begin to understand that someone can think of one thing while doing something else, that a person whose eyes and ears are covered can think, and that thinking is different from talking, touching, and knowing (Flavell et al., 1995). However, young children’s understanding of the mind is far from complete. Three- and four-year-old children do not understand that we think even when we are inactive. They look for visible indicators of thinking—perhaps one reason why teachers of young children refer to “putting on your thinking cap”—and assume their absence indicates the absence of thought. It is not until middle childhood that children understand that the mind is always active (Flavell, 1999). Likewise, preschoolers tend to think of the mind as simply a container for items, but older children tend to see the mind as an active constructor of knowledge that receives, processes, and transforms information (Chandler & Carpendale, 1998).

Young children show limited knowledge of memory functions, contributing to their poor performance on memory tasks. Four-year-olds recognize that increasing the number of items on a list makes recall more difficult and that longer retention intervals increase the likelihood of forgetting (Pillow, 2008). But they know little about the effectiveness of deliberate memory strategies. For example, whereas 6- and 7-year-olds demonstrated an understanding of the role of deliberate practice in memory and practiced without being prompted, 5-year-olds showed an understanding of deliberate practice and some capacity to practice, but 4-year-olds showed neither of these capabilities (Brinums, Imuta, & Suddendorf, 2018). The advances that take place in information processing during early childhood are summarized in Table 7.3.

Table 7.3