What does the false belief test test?

The age at which children acquire the concept of belief is a subject of debate. Manyscholars claim that children master beliefs when they are able to pass the false belieftest, around their fourth year of life. However, recent experiments show that childrenimplicitly attribute beliefs even earlier. The dispute does not only concern the empiricalissue of discovering children’s early cognitive abilities. It also depends on the kind ofcapacities that we associate to the very concept. I claim that concept possession must beunderstood in terms of the gradual development of the abilities that underlie the conceptin question. I also claim that the last step to possess the concept of belief requires childrento understand how beliefs and desires are used in everyday explanations of people’sactions. Thus, I suggest that understanding folk psychology as an explanatory theory iswhat children lack when they fail the false belief test.