本研究主旨為探討幼兒的欺騙能力。由於欺騙的行為定義，在生物界出現的案例 ，幼兒與成人的差別等皆涉及對心智（ mind ）的運作的一些假設及看法，因此探討欺騙能 力更深一層的意義是心智與心智理論（ theory of mind ）的探討。研究的實驗運作是以兒 童玩猜位置（藏有一物）的遊戲中欺騙能力的展現為行為上的依據。由實驗的結果得到以下 的結論：（ 1 ） 3 歲到 4 歲是有無欺騙能力發展的關鍵年齡。（ 2 ） 4 歲到 5 歲的差 別在於欺騙不利於己時，4 歲兒童並無明顯收歛欺騙的傾向。 （ 3 ）無論哪一個年齡層同 齡兒童間個別差異非常明顯，因此不應將某年齡層兒童當作同質群體看待。

　　　　　Deception can be found in man as well as in animals. However, not all deceptive behavior involves the same level of sophistication. From a developmental perspective, the increasing level of sophistication in deception from children to adults reflects the growth of human cognitive ability. Thus to understand the development of deceptive behavior is a way to investigate the growth of Mind and Theory of Mind. The present study investigated preschool children's ability to deceive an opponent in a game. The main findings from this investigation included: (1) The crucial age for the emergence of deception was from 3 to 4-years of ate. (2) The difference between 4 and 5-year old children can be seen in 4-year-old children's inability to refrain from deception when deception is disadvantageous. (3) The difference in decpetive ability among age mates was fairly substantial. Therefore, it is dangerous to treat age group as a homogenous whole.