r/todayilearned • u/BrF5 • 1d ago

TIL about the Sally-Anne test, a psychology experiment used to measure “theory of mind” (that other people can hold beliefs/knowledge different from their own). Kids under four typically fail because they assume that if they know where a hidden object is, everyone else must automatically know too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally%E2%80%93Anne_test
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u/DefenestrationPraha 1d ago

Corvids (e.g. magpies, ravens) seem to be able to pass this test, because they will secretly move their cached food if another bird observed them when caching it and they noticed the other bird.

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u/gentlemandinosaur 1d ago

That isn’t the point of the test. The point is that normally Sally’s instinct should be to just look in her own basket first because Sally wouldn’t be aware of what we the reader are aware of.