APA Dictionary of Psychology

a young child’s false memory of an initial belief, as demonstrated by performance in a false-belief task. For example, children shown a box marked as containing pencils and asked what it contains are likely to reply that it contains pencils; the box is then opened to reveal that it actually contains pennies. When later asked what they originally thought was in the box, most children ages 3 years and younger say pennies, whereas older children remember their original belief.