Beyond Sally's Missing Marble

How do thoughts, emotions, and decisions align? A new way to examine theory of mind during middle childhood and beyond

“…Moreover, all age groups formed valence-matched triads and dyads well above chance. These data extend related ToM research showing significant changes in reasoning about interrelations among different kinds of mental states between 3 and 10 years of age (see Lagattuta, 2014; Lagattuta et al, 2015). Here, we also confirm that thought-emotion connections appear more straightforward for all age groups compared to linking people’s thoughts and decisions or their emotions and decisions (Bartsch et al, 2007, Lagattuta & Wellman, 2001).…”

“…These findings add much needed data to the emerging literature on individual differences in ToM in middle childhood (see Hughes & Devine, 2015; Lagattuta et al, 2015). More specifically, the current study demonstrates that individuals with superior WM and IC provided more valence-matched mental state triads on consistent-past trials (NN, PP), and stronger WM predicted the creation of more valence-matched triads on the inconsistent-past (PN, NP) and baseline trials.…”

“…Despite a rich foundation of studies on infants’ and preschoolers’ concepts about desires, emotions, and beliefs (see Wellman, 2014), less attention has been directed towards ToM improvements after age 6, including sources of variability during middle childhood and beyond (Hughes & Devine, 2015; Lagattuta et al, 2015; Miller, 2012; Pillow, 2012). As reviewed in Lagattuta (2014), one such advance involves more complex reasoning about causal connections between mental states (e.g., how thoughts cause emotions).…”

“…We focus on connections between ToM and executive function (EF, a number of interconnected higher-order cognitive processes, Miyake et al, 2000), because inhibitory control (IC, the ability to stop automatic responses, Best & Miller, 2010) and working memory (WM, the ability to consider and manipulate pieces of information, Baddeley, 1992) predict variability in ToM in early childhood (see Devine & Hughes, 2014; Marcovitch et al, 2015). Much less is known about these relations in older children (see Hughes & Devine, 2015; Lagattuta et al, 2015). Lagattuta and colleagues recently demonstrated that even when controlling for age, individual differences in WM and IC predict more advanced ToM in 4- to 10-year-olds and adults (Kennedy, Lagattuta, & Sayfan, 2015; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2010; Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Harvey, 2014).…”

Parents' math–gender stereotypes, children's self-perception of ability, and children's appraisal of parents' evaluations in 6-year-olds

“…they become aware that individuals may have different interpretations of the same situation, only by the age of 6 or 7 (Lagattuta, Sayfan, & Blattman, 2010). More importantly, children's accuracy in understanding such diversity, as well as their ability to distinguish ones' own beliefs from others' (e.g., Dumontheil, Apperly, & Blakemore, 2010), continues to improve well into middle childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (see Lagattuta, Kramer, Kennedy, Hjortsvang, Goldfarb, & Tashjian, 2015, for a review).…”