Where Will They Look?

The classic “false-belief” scenario, turned into a repeatable puppet game. A toy hides something, leaves the room, and while they’re gone the object is secretly moved. When the toy comes back, the child predicts: where will they LOOK? The right answer — where the toy left it, not where it really is now — means the child grasps that people act on what they believe, even when that belief is wrong. This is the headline theory-of-mind milestone of ages 4–5.

  1. Set the scene with the toy “watching.” “Teddy has a strawberry. He LOVES it. Watch — he puts it in the basket.”
  2. Send the toy away. “Now Teddy goes outside for a nap.” Put the toy fully out of sight.
  3. Move the treasure together — as a secret. “While Teddy’s gone, let’s move the strawberry into the BOX. Shhh!” The child is in on the secret.
  4. Bring the toy back and ask the belief question. “Teddy wants his strawberry. Where will he LOOK first?” (Correct: the basket — where he left it.)
  5. Check the facts (the control questions). “Where IS the strawberry really? And where did Teddy PUT it at the start?” This makes sure the child is tracking reality and memory, not just guessing.
  6. Reveal and explain the WHY. “He looked in the basket — because he didn’t SEE us move it! He thinks it’s still there.” Naming the reason is what builds the concept.

Variation: Real-life version — “Daddy put his keys in his coat, then I moved them to the drawer — where will he look?” Emotion add-on — “How will Teddy feel when he opens the basket?” Three characters — one who saw the move and one who didn’t (“who knows? who’ll be tricked?”).

Requirements

  • Space: Anywhere — a table or the floor
  • Surface: N/A
  • Materials: Two soft toys or puppets, two containers (a basket and a box, or two coloured cups), one small desirable object
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings can each predict
  • Supervision: Adult-led puppet play

Rationale & Objective

The unexpected-transfer task is the original false-belief paradigm — Wimmer & Perner’s (1983) “Maxi and the chocolate,” turned into the Sally-Anne puppet test by Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith (1985). The robust finding, confirmed across 178 studies in Wellman, Cross & Watson’s (2001) meta-analysis, is a clear shift from failing around age 3 to passing around 4–5: younger children say the character will look where the object really is (their own knowledge), while older children correctly predict the character will act on a false belief. It is step 4 of Wellman & Liu’s (2004) scale — right at a 5-year-old’s growing edge. Honest framing — a 3- or 4-year-old who “fails” is developmentally on track, not deficient, so this is a window to watch the milestone emerge, never a test to pass; and the control questions matter, because a wrong answer can simply mean the child forgot the sequence rather than lacking the concept (the lesson of Perner and colleagues’ careful task design).

Progress Indicators

  • Early: says Teddy will look where the object really is now — answering from their own knowledge; may lose track of which container
  • Developing: gets it right with heavy hints or on some trials but not others; can answer the “where is it really / where did he put it” control questions
  • Proficient: spontaneously predicts “the basket — he thinks it’s still there” and can justify it by what Teddy did or didn’t see
  • Advanced: generalises — predicts the character’s emotion on opening the wrong place (“he’ll be confused”), invents transfer scenarios, and handles a third character who knows versus doesn’t

Safety Notes

  • Frame it as a game about not seeing and a happy surprise, not as rewarded trickery of a person — it targets a toy and is revealed at once
  • Never label a wrong answer “wrong” in a shaming way; failing before about age 4 is completely normal
  • If the child is upset that the toy “gets tricked,” switch the frame to “Teddy is surprised,” not fooled
  • Use a toy strawberry or marble rather than the child’s own treasured object, or they’ll fixate on getting it back instead of on the toy’s mind

Hints

  • Playfulness: give the toys voices and big reactions; let the child run the puppet who “doesn’t see”
  • Sustain interest: keep it short (under five minutes); vary characters, objects, and hiding places so it feels new each time
  • Common mistake: asking “where will he look?” before the child clearly watched the move; skipping the control questions; using the child’s own favourite object
  • Limited materials: two pockets or two cupped hands work; or play it with a real family member and real hidden keys
  • Cross-domain: language (the verbs think / know / look-for and the “thinks that…” frame); executive function (holding back your own knowledge); emotion (predicting surprise)
  • Progression: track the object → answer control questions → predict the look with support → predict and justify spontaneously → predict the resulting emotion → add a third character who knows

Sources

  • Wimmer, H. & Perner, J. (1983). “Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception.” Cognition, 13(1), 103–128
  • Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M. & Frith, U. (1985). “Does the autistic child have a ’theory of mind’?” Cognition, 21(1), 37–46
  • Wellman, H. M., Cross, D. & Watson, J. (2001). “Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief.” Child Development, 72(3), 655–684
  • Wellman, H. M. & Liu, D. (2004). “Scaling of theory-of-mind tasks.” Child Development, 75(2), 523–541
  • Wellman, H. M., Fang, F. & Peterson, C. C. (2011). “Sequential progressions in a theory-of-mind scale: Longitudinal perspectives.” Child Development, 82(3), 780–792
  • CASEL — Social Awareness (perspective-taking)
  • UK EYFS — PSED Self-Regulation ELG (understand their own feelings and those of others)
  • Head Start ELOF — Social & Emotional (recognizes emotions in self and others); Approaches to Learning (cognitive self-regulation)