A broad assessment of theory of mind in adolescence: The complexity of mindreading

Bosco, Francesca; Gabbatore, Ilaria; Tirassa, Maurizio

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2014.01.003

Cited by 66 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Previous research has demonstrated an effect for age on the Strange Stories and Faux Pas task (Banerjee, ; Banerjee & Watling, ; Baron‐Cohen et al ., ; O'Hare, Bremner, Nash, Happé, & Pettigrew, ). However, not all research has identified age‐related trends in Strange Stories performance during adolescence (Bosco, Gabbatore, & Tirassa, ). Given the comprehension difficulties documented here, the variability that was attributed to age in some research may have been related to issues of comprehension.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability and validity of advanced theory‐of‐mind measures in middle childhood and adolescence

Hayward

Homer

2017

British J of Dev Psycho

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Although theory-of-mind (ToM) development is well documented for early childhood, there is increasing research investigating changes in ToM reasoning in middle childhood and adolescence. However, the psychometric properties of most advanced ToM measures for use with older children and adolescents have not been firmly established. We report on the reliability and validity of widely used, conventional measures of advanced ToM with this age group. Notable issues with both reliability and validity of several of the measures were evident in the findings. With regard to construct validity, results do not reveal a clear empirical commonality between tasks, and, after accounting for comprehension, developmental trends were evident in only one of the tasks investigated. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Second-order false belief tasks have acceptable internal consistency. The Eyes Test has poor internal consistency. Validity of advanced theory-of-mind tasks is often based on the ability to distinguish clinical from typical groups. What does this study add? This study examines internal consistency across six widely used advanced theory-of-mind tasks. It investigates validity of tasks based on comprehension of items by typically developing individuals. It further assesses construct validity, or commonality between tasks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability and validity of advanced theory‐of‐mind measures in middle childhood and adolescence

Hayward

Homer

2017

British J of Dev Psycho

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“…These questions require children to draw conclusions on the basis of information derived from different sources as well as to have the ability to take into account mental states of others, together with a general knowledge of social norms. ToM abilities develop during school age and keep developing during adolescence (Bosco et al, 2014). It is not surprising, therefore, that questions requiring the use of complex contextual information and ToM are the most difficult questions to answer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the age of five children also start to show belief based reasoning when they distinguish ideological (such as religious) beliefs from factual and preference-based beliefs (Heiphetz, Spelke, Harris, & Banaji, 2013). ToM skills continue to develop into adolescence (Bosco, Gabbatore, & Tirassa, 2014), and they seem to contribute to understanding the implied meanings involved in more complex communicative structures, such as sophisticated lies (Talwar, Gordon, & Lee, 2007) and ironies (Nilsen, Glenwright, & Huyder, 2011).…”

Section: Development Of Social-pragmatic Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Contextual and Social Meaning in Typically Developing Finnish-Speaking Four- To Eight-Year-Old Children

Loukusa

Mäkinen

Gabbatore

et al. 2017

Psychology of Language and Communication

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This study examined the development of social-pragmatic comprehension in 170 Finnish four-to eight-year-old children. The children were asked to respond to socially and contextually demanding questions targeting their social-pragmatic language processing, and to explain their correct answers in order to elicit their awareness of how they had derived the answers from the context. The results showed that the number of correct answers increased especially between the ages of four and seven years. We found that questions demanding contextual processing without mind-reading were the easiest to understand, followed by questions demanding processing of feelings of others and false beliefs. The questions demanding understanding of relevant language use and processing of contextual factors including mental states and intentions were the most challenging for the children. Between four and five years of age there was a remarkable developmental phase in children's ability to give proper explanations.

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“…Additionally, ToM keeps on developing after childhood (Apperly, 2012; Brizio et al, 2015). Adolescents and adults perform correctly not only at FB tasks but also at other tasks evaluating the understanding of more complex social situations (Lawson et al, 2004; Beaumont and Sofronoff, 2008; Bosco et al, 2014). Thus, ToM is not a monolithic ability and the FB paradigm, although useful, does not cover all ToM processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of Two Types of Syntactic Embedding in Belief Attribution in Adults with or without Asperger Syndrome

et al. 2017

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The role of syntax in belief attribution (BA) is not completely understood in healthy adults and understudied in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Embedded syntax could be useful either for the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) (Emergence account) or more generally over the lifespan (Reasoning account). Two hypotheses have been explored, one suggesting that embedding itself (Relatives and Complement sentences and Metarepresentation account) is important for ToM and another one considering that the embedding of a false proposition into a true one (Complement sentences and Misrepresentation account) is important. The goals of this study were to evaluate (1) the role of syntax in ToM (Emergence vs. Reasoning account), (2) the type of syntax implied in ToM (Metarepresentation vs. Misrepresentation account), and (3) the verbally mediated strategies which compensate for ToM deficits in adults with Asperger Syndrome (AS). Fifty NeuroTypical (NT) adults and 22 adults with AS were involved in a forced-choice task including ±ToM tasks (BA and a control task, physical causation, PC) under four Interference conditions (silence, syllable repetition, relative sentences repetition, and complement sentences repetition). The non-significant ±ToM × Interference interaction effect in the NT group did not support the Reasoning account and thus suggests that syntax is useful only for ToM development (i.e., Emergence account). Results also indicated that repeating complement clauses put NT participants in a dual task whereas repeating relative clauses did not, suggesting that repeating relatives is easier for NT than repeating complements. This could be an argument in favor of the Misrepresentation account. However, this result should be interpreted with caution because our results did not support the Reasoning account. Moreover, AS participants (but not NT participants) were more disrupted by ±ToM tasks when asked to repeat complement sentences compared to relative clause sentences. This result is in favor of the Misrepresentation account and indirectly suggests verbally mediated strategies for ToM in AS. To summarize, our results are in favor of the Emergence account in NT and of Reasoning and Misrepresentation accounts in adults with AS. Overall, this suggests that adults with AS use complement syntax to compensate for ToM deficits.

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A broad assessment of theory of mind in adolescence: The complexity of mindreading

Cited by 66 publications

References 54 publications

Reliability and validity of advanced theory‐of‐mind measures in middle childhood and adolescence

Reliability and validity of advanced theory‐of‐mind measures in middle childhood and adolescence

Understanding Contextual and Social Meaning in Typically Developing Finnish-Speaking Four- To Eight-Year-Old Children

Role of Two Types of Syntactic Embedding in Belief Attribution in Adults with or without Asperger Syndrome

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