成人心理理论的研究回顾与展望

成人心理理论领域的研究自20世纪90年代受到关注。成人心理理论在发展模式和水平上与儿童存在差异,高级的心理理论任务被广泛使用,但各种研究范式的有效性受到质疑。正常成人心理理论能力伴随个体老化而下降的趋势已得到多数研究证实,而更多的研究者关注特殊成人的心理理论发展。成人的心理理论亦与执行功能、语言、社会能力等因素密切相关。未来研究应注意在提高成人心理理论任务效度的基础上,拓展研究的年龄范围,重视特殊成人心理理论研究的应用价值,从干预和治疗角度出发,拓宽研究领域。     

7-11岁儿童心理状态信息理解与使用的发展特点及关系

采用失言任务和改进的说服任务考察了153名7-11岁儿童的心理理论理解和使用能力的发展状况。结果发现：儿童的失言理解能力和心理状态信息使用能力7-9岁时发展迅速,9岁后趋于稳定;两种能力的发展趋势基本一致,两者呈现中度相关;8-9岁是儿童失言理解和心理状态信息使用发展的转折点。结果表明：心理状态理解和使用的能力是儿童心理理论发展的重要组成部分,两者的发展基本同步。     

成人期个体心理理论的发展、研究范式与神经机制

成人心理理论的发展有助于个体顺利地进行社会互动,更好地适应社会。个体的心理理论能力会随着个体认知能力的发展以及大脑的发育而呈现出不断发展变化的趋势。研究者采取众多研究范式测量了成人心理理论。在进行心理理论加工时,青春期个体更多的激活了内侧前额叶皮层的后部,而青年期个体更多的激活了右颞上沟。根据研究结果,学者们构建了两成分认知模型、共享回路与中线结构整合模型以及心理理论多层次模型来解释成人心理理论能力。在进一步的研究中,成人心理理论的研究还应开发有效的研究范式来逐步揭示心理理论本身发展的特征、心理理论与外界因素如生活环境的关系以及解读互动心理的特征。     

成年个体的心理理论与执行功能

为了说明成年个体心理理论与执行功能的发展及两者的关系,在匹配了智商和教育水平条件下,采用心理理论故事理解任务、失言理解任务和威斯康星卡片分类任务分别探察了30名62~77岁的老年人和30名19~25岁青年人的心理理论和执行功能。结果表明,老年人和青年人在2种心理理论任务上的得分与卡片分类任务的得分都不存在显著相关,老年人在失言任务上的得分显著低于青年人,在心理理论故事理解任务上和威斯康星卡片分类任务上,老年人的表现与青年人没有显著差异。结合已有的研究结果提示：心理理论与执行功能的相关模式在成年和学前阶段是不同的。     

7～9岁儿童失言理解与执行功能的关系

为了说明学龄儿童心理理论与执行功能的关系,研究采用失言理解、威斯康星卡片分类和汉诺塔任务分别考察了90名7—9岁儿童的心理理论和执行功能。结果表明,失言理解与抑制-转换能力相关显著（r=0．34,P〈0．01）,但是与计划能力相关不显著（r=0．06,P〉0．05）。在控制年龄后,失言理解与抑制-转换能力的相关仍然显著（r=0．29,P〈0．05）。研究结果说明,学龄儿童心理理论与执行功能的相关模式与学龄前儿童完全一致,提示心理理论与执行功能的相关关系从学龄前延续到了学龄阶段。     

心理理论的ERP研究:基于多重成分框架的视角

心理理论是社会认知的核心能力之一。现有的心理理论ERP研究以心理理论较为公认的4个成分信念、愿望、意图和情绪为框架,表现出了一些一致性的规律:心理理论相关的脑电成分根据不同的心理理论成分而有所区分;不同心理理论成分诱发的相关脑电出现的位置表现出跨任务的一致性;心理理论的ERP发展研究在儿童身上表现出与成人类似的结果,但也具有时间窗口更长,位置分布更宽广的特性。未来的研究需要设计出更符合ERP研究技术要求的任务范式,并注意心理理论概念结构的完整性,还应探寻心理理论各成分加工的共同电生理基础。     

5～8岁儿童失言探测与理解的发展特点

失言探测与理解是一种融入了人际互动,需要个体体会交往双方心理感受的高级心理理论任务.本研究采用图片-故事法探讨失言情境(他人对自我、自我对他人和他人对他人 )对5～8岁儿童失言探测与理解的影响.结果发现,7～8岁儿童基本拥有了失言探测与理解能力,6、7、8岁儿童在所有情境下失言探测和理解能力同步发展,而5岁儿童在他人对自我情境下失言探测与理解的成绩显著好于自我对他人情境下的成绩,提示失言探测与理解能力在不同阶段会表现出不同的发展特点.     

西方心理分离的研究回顾

近几十年来,家庭对儿童青少年心理发展的影响受到众多研究者的关注,国外家庭研究和治疗领域的许多研究者进行了大量有关心理分离的研究。心理分离即个体与家庭在心理上的分离并形成个体化的程度。文章从心理分离的界定、心理分离的理论背景（Mahler发展阶段理论、Bowen家庭系统理论）、心理分离的测量方法、心理分离研究现状这几方面对现有研究进行了综述,并做了简要评述,最后阐述了西方心理分离的研究对我国家庭研究与治疗的启示,并对未来的研究进行了展望     

儿童反语理解的心理机制

反语是指使用与本意相反的字面形式表达本意的一种修辞形式,在儿童言语发展领域中是一种难度较大的认知对象。该对儿童在反语理解任务中的困难根源进行了探讨,介绍了目前关于儿童反语理解的心理机制研究的两种主要途径,一是采用成人反语识别理论去解释儿童反语理解的心理过程,二是从二阶心理理论角度开展的解释儿童反语理解的心理机制的尝试,最后在暗示假装理论和二阶心理理论的框架下对现有的研究证据进行了整合的讨论,并对未来研究提出了建议。     

心理理论的自发反应范式：方法、结果与解释

近30年来, 心理理论一直是认知发展领域关键而充满挑战的研究主题, 儿童理解他人错误信念的能力是心理理论发展的标志。诱导反应范式(elicited-response tasks)的研究结果表明4岁时儿童获得心理理论, 但是自发反应范式(spontaneous-response tasks)的研究结果表明婴儿15个月大时就已经具备心理理论。自发反应范式(spontaneous-response task) 是近些年来心理理论研究领域发展起来的研究范式。针对幼儿能通过自发反应范式却不能通过诱导反应范式这一问题, 已有三种相关的理论解释：早期能力掩盖说、内隐知识解释论和观点追踪解释论。未来心理理论研究应注意将自发反应范式运用于特殊儿童, 并进一步验证和研究心理理论的发展机制。     

Animal Faux Pas: Two Legs Good Four Legs Bad for Theory of Mind,but Not in the Broad Autism Spectrum

Research shows that the general population varies with regard to both autistic traits and theory of mind (ToM) ability. Other work has shown that autistic individuals may not underperform on ToM tests when the agent of evaluation is anthropomorphic rather than typically human. Two studies examined the relation between ToM and autistic trait profiles in over 650 adults using either the standard Faux Pas Recognition Test (FPT) or an anthropomorphized version of the FPT (FPTa). Results showed that autistic trait profiles were related to faux pas detection ability in the FPT but not the FPTa. Furthermore, while those with the broad autism phenotype scored significantly worse than those who were typically developed on the FPT, scores did not significantly differ on the FPTa. These findings add to a growing body of work suggesting that ToM ability is not at a global deficit in those on the autistic spectrum, but may relate to the mindreading of specifically human agents.     

Executive and attentional contributions to Theory of Mind deficit in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children has been associated with attentional and executive problems, but also with socioemotional difficulties possibly associated with deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM). Socioemotional problems in ADHD are associated with more negative prognoses, notably interpersonal, educational problems, and an increased risk of developing other psychiatric disorders that emphasize the need to clarify the nature of their ToM deficits. In this study, we hypothesized that ToM dysfunction in children with ADHD is largely attributable to their attentional and/or executive deficits. Thirty-one children with ADHD (8–12 years, IQ > 85) and 31 typically developing (TD) children were assessed using executive functions (inhibition, planning, and flexibility) and attentional tasks, as well as two advanced ToM tasks (Reading the Mind in the Eyes and Faux Pas) involving different levels of executive control. Children with ADHD performed more poorly than TD children in attentional, executive function, and ToM tasks. Linear regression analyses conducted in the ADHD group indicated that inhibition scores predicted performance on the “Faux Pas” task the best, while attention scores were the best for predicting performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. When controlled for inhibition and attentional variables, ToM performance in children with ADHD was actually similar to TD children. Contrarily, controlling for ToM scores did not normalize performance for inhibition and attentional tasks in children with ADHD. This unidirectional relationship suggests that deficits in the EF and attentional domains are responsible for ToM deficits in ADHD, which therefore may contribute to their socioemotional difficulties.     

心理理论发展研究的一种新范式——矩阵博弈

心理理论指对他人心理状态的理解,是一种毕生发展的能力。但之前的研究在研究对象和研究内容上存在一些缺陷。本文介绍了一种新范式——矩阵博弈(matrix game),对利用其研究心理理论进行了可行性分析,同时指出了两者相结合的理论基础和实证证据。未来研究可利用矩阵博弈来研究更广年龄范围人群心理理论的发展轨迹,并借助fMRI等技术来测查矩阵博弈中心理理论推理的脑机制。     

Theory of mind and its relationship with executive functions and emotion recognition in borderline personality disorder

Impaired social cognition has been claimed to be a mechanism underlying the development and maintenance of borderline personality disorder (BPD). One important aspect of social cognition is the theory of mind (ToM), a complex skill that seems to be influenced by more basic processes, such as executive functions (EF) and emotion recognition. Previous ToM studies in BPD have yielded inconsistent results. This study assessed the performance of BPD adults on ToM, emotion recognition, and EF tasks. We also examined whether EF and emotion recognition could predict the performance on ToM tasks. We evaluated 15 adults with BPD and 15 matched healthy controls using different tasks of EF, emotion recognition, and ToM. The results showed that BPD adults exhibited deficits in the three domains, which seem to be task‐dependent. Furthermore, we found that EF and emotion recognition predicted the performance on ToM. Our results suggest that tasks that involve real‐life social scenarios and contextual cues are more sensitive to detect ToM and emotion recognition deficits in BPD individuals. Our findings also indicate that (a) ToM variability in BPD is partially explained by individual differences on EF and emotion recognition; and (b) ToM deficits of BPD patients are partially explained by the capacity to integrate cues from face, prosody, gesture, and social context to identify the emotions and others' beliefs.     

An assessment of age differences in theory of mind using the virtual assessment of mentalizing ability

ABSTRACT

Prior research has shown that older adults perform more poorly than young on tasks that assess theory of mind (ToM). However, these studies have used tasks that are performed “offline” (i.e., requiring a second-person perspective) as opposed to “online” (i.e., requiring a first-person perspective). Therefore, the present study was designed to establish whether age-related ToM difficulties are also evident when an “online” measure of ToM is used. Forty younger and 40 older adults completed the Virtual Assessment of Mentalizing Ability (VAMA) along with two conventional ToM tasks. No age differences were evident on the conventional measures, but older adults had lower accuracy on the VAMA relative to their younger counterparts. The overall pattern of errors did not differ between the groups. These data provide no evidence that age effects are reduced when stimuli are used that are more likely to engage the mentalizing processes elicited in real life social interactions.     

Self-projection in younger and older adults: a study of episodic memory,prospection, and theory of mind

Self-projection is the ability to orient the self in different places in time and space. Episodic memory, prospection, and theory of mind (ToM) are all cognitive abilities that share an element of self-projection. Previous research has posited that each of these abilities stems from the same neural network. The current study compared performance of cognitively healthy older adults and younger adults on several self-projection tasks to examine the relatedness of these constructs behaviorally. Episodic memory and prospection were measured using an episodic interview task where the participants were asked to remember or imagine events that either had happened in the past or could happen in the future and then gave ratings describing the extent to which they were mentally experiencing the event and from what perspective they viewed it. ToM was measured by asking participants to make judgments regarding the intentions of characters described in stories that involved cognitive, affective, or ironic components. Our results demonstrate that aging influences episodic memory, prospection, and ToM similarly: older adult participants showed declines on each of these measures compared to younger adults. Further, we observed correlations between performance on the measures of episodic memory and prospection as well as between episodic memory and ToM, although no correlation between prospection and ToM was observed after controlling for chronological age. We discuss these results in the light of theories suggesting that each of these abilities is governed by a common brain system.     

Reasoning bias for the recall of one's own beliefs in a Smarties task for adults

While many studies in the theory of mind (ToM) literature have investigated how we understand others' mental states, few have explored the mechanism by which we reflect on our own mental states. This study examined how adults reflect on their own and others' mental states within the same ToM task. To do so, we modified the Smarties task, one of the traditional ToM tasks for children. The results showed that adult participants were biased by outcome knowledge when recalling their false belief and that the participants who overestimated their false belief also overestimated the mental states of a naive other. These results were analogous to young children's failure in the Smarties task. Considering the current findings, we discuss possible cognitive processes that are common across children and adults when reflecting on their own mental states and the mental states of others.     

The influence of inhibitory processes on affective theory of mind in young and old adults

The primary aim of this study was to examine the impact of an inhibition manipulation on the effect of age on theory of mind (ToM) in an ecologically valid, affective ToM task. Participants were 30 young and 30 old adults. The Cambridge Mindreading Face-Voice Battery was used to measure ToM; in addition, measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence were taken. Participants were subjected to three levels of inhibitory demand during ToM reasoning: emotional inhibition, non-emotional inhibition, and no inhibition. Old adults performed worse than young adults. The emotional and non-emotional inhibition conditions resulted in worse ToM performance compared to the no inhibition condition. There were no differences in the impact of the inhibition conditions on old and young adults. Regression analyses suggested that old adults’ crystallized intelligence was a significant predictor of ToM performance, whereas it did not predict young adults’ ToM performance. Results are discussed in terms of verbal ability as a possible compensatory mechanism in coping with verbal inhibitory load in ToM reasoning.     

The relationship between joint attention and theory of mind in neurotypical adults

Joint attention (JA) is hypothesized to have a close relationship with developing theory of mind (ToM) capabilities. We tested the co-occurrence of ToM and JA in social interactions between adults with no reported history of psychiatric illness or neurodevelopmental disorders. Participants engaged in an experimental task that encouraged nonverbal communication, including JA, and also ToM activity. We adapted an in-lab variant of experience sampling methods (Bryant et al., 2013) to measure ToM during JA based on participants’ subjective reports of their thoughts while performing the task. This experiment successfully elicited instances of JA in 17/20 dyads. We compared participants’ thought contents during episodes of JA and non-JA. Our results suggest that, in adults, JA and ToM may occur independently.