How do use and comprehension of mental-state language relate to theory of mind in middle childhood?

Abstract

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c tThis study investigates the relationship between mental-state language and theory of mind in primary school children. The participants were 110 primary school students (mean age = 9 years and 7 months; SD = 12.7 months). They were evenly divided by gender and belonged to two age groups (8-and 10-year-olds). Linguistic, metacognitive and cognitive measures were used to assess the following competencies: verbal ability, use of mental-state terms, understanding of metacognitive language, understanding of second-order false beliefs, and emotion comprehension. Correlations between children' use of mental-state language and their performance on theory-of-mind tasks were moderate, whereas correlations between children's comprehension of such language and ToM abilities were high. In addition, regression analyses showed that comprehension of metacognitive language was the variable which best explained children's performance on both false belief tasks and an emotion comprehension test when verbal ability and age were controlled for.

Beyond Sally's Missing Marble

“…Researchers examining relations between mental state language and ToM in 6-to 10-year-olds have found no significant association between children's production of mental state terms and their performance on second-order false-belief tasks (Charman & Shmueli-Goetz, 1998;Longobardi, Spataro, & Renna, 2014;Meins, Fernyhough, Johnson, & Lidstone, 2006). Relations continue to exist, however, between older children's comprehension of the meaning of different mental state terms (metalinguistic knowledge) and their performance on advanced ToM (Grazzani & Ornaghi, 2012;Longobardi et al, 2014); perhaps not surprising because metalinguistic awareness is a direct measure of ToM. These data indicate that parent-child conversations about mental states may be more critical for early acquisition of ToM, but less important once certain ToM levels have been mastered.…”

The origins of children’s metamemory: The role of theory of mind

“…Second, children's DM requires an acquaintance with terms indicating cognitive activities and the ability to infer and reflect on cognitions. Importantly, individual differences in children's use and understanding of mental state terms are associated with false-belief understanding (Grazzani & Ornaghi, 2012;Hughes & Dunn, 1998) and mark full understanding of specific mnemonic conceptions (Wellman & Johnson, 1979). Here, it is important to note that a basic understanding of memory-related verbs seems to follow a mastery of the classic false-belief task.…”

Preschool teachers' reference to theory of mind topics in three storybook contexts: Reading, reconstruction and telling

“…Previous studies demonstrated that the frequency of adult elaboration on emotional states during discourse with preschool children correlates with children's ToM in general, and with their understanding of emotions in preschool and the beginning of school in particular (Grazzani & Ornaghi, 2012;LaBounty et al, 2008). The teachers in the current study elaborated most on the characters' emotions during telling, thus expanding the children's exposure to this important aspect beyond its appearance in the book's text, as demonstrated in the following question and comment: "How did the bear feel when the dog disappeared?"…”