幼儿看图叙述中心理状态术语的使用与错误信念理解关系的短期跟踪研究

摘 要：为探明汉语儿童看图叙述中心理状态术语的应用及与错误信念理解能力的关系,并追踪二者相互作用的方向,本研究以101名3-5岁儿童为研究对象,纵向探查了前后相隔3个月的儿童看图叙述中心理状态术语使用情况和错误信念能力的发展状况,并从横向和纵向两个时间点分别探讨了心理状态术语的运用与错误信念理解的关系。结果表明：3-5岁儿童错误信念理解能力快速发展;儿童看图叙述中使用较多的愿望术语和情绪术语,信念术语应用相对较少,且认知词汇类型较少。控制了一般语言能力和年龄之后,仅在第一次测验上,情绪术语、信念术语仍然与同期及后期错误信念理解能力存在显著相关。     

幼儿心理状态术语的运用与心理理论的发展

本研究目的在于探讨幼儿在假装游戏中心理状态术语的应用,以及与错误信念的理解是否存在相关并具有一定的发展特征。57名3—5岁的幼儿参加了实验。研究程序包括两类标准错误信念任务及假装游戏的拍摄、麦卡锡幼儿言语智力测验。结果发现：(1)幼儿的一般言语能力与错误信念的理解存在显著相关;(2)幼儿心理状态术语的使用存在情境差异,且随年龄的增长具有“指向愿望一指向信念”的维度特征;(3)在控制相关因素之后,幼儿错误信念的理解与心理状态术语的应用及其特定范畴(习惯用语)之间仍然存在显著相关;与“真正涉及心理状态”之间的相关不再显著。     

亲子互动中游戏参与方式、情感交流和儿童心理理论的关系

本研究通过亲子互动游戏观察来考查亲子游戏参与方式、情感交流与儿童心理理论发展的关系。实验结果如下:第一,控制了年龄因素后,儿童的亲子游戏参与方式中的主动参与和建议游戏两种方式与儿童心理理论发展之间存在显著的相关;而对于母亲来说,指导游戏的参与方式和儿童心理理论发展存在显著相关。第二,控制了年龄因素之后,儿童情感交流方面的分享积极情感和心理理论发展之间存在显著相关。而母亲这方面的指标和儿童心理理论发展没有显著相关。文章对上述结果进行了分析讨论。     

同伴接纳、家庭因素与儿童心理理论的关系

以56名幼儿园大班儿童为被试,考察了同伴接纳和家庭因素与儿童心理理论的关系。结果发现:(1)6～7岁儿童的同伴接纳类型、家庭功能和其心理理论能力之间存在显著相关。同伴接纳程度高的儿童和家庭功能类型属于平衡型的儿童,心理理论能力较高。(2)家庭亲密度与儿童心理理论能力存在显著相关;(3)母亲的文化水平对儿童心理理论能力存在显著影响;(4)儿童性别、同伴接纳类型、家庭亲密度和母亲文化程度可以预测儿童心理理论发展水平。     

不同形式的语言介入对汉语儿童心理理论发展的干预

为比较语言本身和语言交流的情境过程对儿童心理理论的贡献以及欺骗在此过程中的作用,本研究采用前后测对照实验设计探查了不同形式的语言介入和相关欺骗训练对儿童心理理论发展的影响。选取语言能力达到常模水平但未通过外表－事实区分任务的4岁组儿童77名,随机分为3个训练组和1个对照组,对其进行心理理论和语言能力前测,在各组的两种能力发展水平相当的前提下,对3个训练组分别作如下处理：完全训练组：带有心理状态动词的补语句法及欺骗训练;情境交际组：伴随语言情境交际训练和欺骗训练;补语句法组：心理状态动词和补语句法训练。一周后进行心理理论后测。结果表明,3个训练组与对照组之间在心理理论表现上均有显著差异。相对于一般语言交流的情境过程,补语句法和心理状态动词更能显著提高儿童的心理理论;早期欺骗经历也能促进儿童心理理论的发展,若二者结合使用则更利于儿童心理理论的改进     

同伴交往、亲子交往与儿童心理理论发展的关系

采用经典的心理理论任务、同伴提名法、父母教养方式问卷以及在游戏情境中观察同伴交往行为和亲子交往行为等多种方法,探讨同伴交往、亲子交往与儿童心理理论发展的关系.88名3-6岁儿童及其家长参加了实验.研究结果表明:(1)交往类型中受欢迎儿童,其心理理论发展水平显著高于被拒绝和被忽视儿童.(2)民主型教养方式最有利于促进幼儿心理理论的发展,放任型教养方式最不利于幼儿心理理论的发展.(3)家长指导游戏的行为、分享情感的行为和使用心理状态术语的行为,有利于促进孩子心理理论的发展,而对孩子的冷漠最不利于孩子心理理论的发展.(4)相对于同伴交往,亲子交往对儿童心理理论的发展有更显著的预测力,其中家长和孩子的情感分享.对孩子遇到问题的解释及指导是促进孩子心理理论发展的重要影响因素.     

幼儿对心理状态的认识

本研究探讨３—５岁儿童对自身和他人心理状态认识的发展过程．借助图片和玩具结合四种作业任务,对１９１名儿童进行了实验和短期追踪实验。结果表明：３岁儿童尚不能对心理状态作出认识,４岁半左右是儿童认识心理状态的转折期,到５岁末能完全把握自身和他人的心理状态．在四项作业任务中,儿童通过的先后次序为他人误念判断和他人未知判断、现象一实在区分、表征变换．这一方面与儿童的认知发展趋势有关,另一方面也与实验的情景和材料有关．     

幼儿心理理论与执行功能关系的研究

本研究目的在于探讨幼儿的心理理论与执行功能(主要是抑制控制)之间是否存在着某种关系。给39名3～4岁的幼儿施测多种心理理论任务、抑制控制任务、非心理状态任务和智力测量。结果发现：(1)在控制相关因素后,心理理论各任务之间的相关仍然存在;(2)在控制相关因素后,抑制控制诸任务之间仍保持高相关;(3)幼儿在心理理论任务上的表现与其在抑制控制任务上的表现呈显著相关,即使控制了年龄、性别、智力(包括言语智力和操作智力)、非心理状态控制任务之后,这种相关仍旧存在。     

7～11岁儿童失言理解及与母亲教养方式的关系

采用失言任务和改编后的教养方式问卷探讨7~11岁儿童心理理论的发展及其与母亲教养方式的相关。结果表明,在学龄期,儿童在不同层面上对失言的理解能力仍在提高,高年级时已超出单一维度。7岁儿童对包含意图的信念理解与母亲的"过度偏爱"显著负相关;8岁儿童对包含意图的信念理解与母亲的"惩罚和严厉"显著负相关。结果提示在某些年龄阶段,儿童心理理论的发展可能与母亲特定的教养方式有关。     

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。     

Exploring the specificity of age-related differences in theory of mind tasks

Tasks assessing theory of mind (ToM) and non-mental state control tasks were administered to young and older adults to examine previous contradictory findings about age differences in mental state decoding. Age differences were found on a verbal ToM task after controlling for vocabulary levels. Older adults achieved significantly lower scores than did younger adults on static and dynamic visual ToM tasks, and a similar pattern was found on non-ToM control tasks. Rather than a specific ToM deficit, older adults exhibited a more general impairment in the ability to decode cues from verbal and visual information about people.     

儿童阅读与心理理论间的关系

阅读与心理理论(theory of mind, ToM)在儿童发展过程中都发挥着重要的作用, 梳理文献发现两者可能存在双向促进作用。儿童通过与家长或老师的共享阅读, 启动联合注意, 使用心理状态术语进行对话, 进一步根据社会想象力, 模拟社会互动, 从而促进儿童心理理论发展。另一方面, 在阅读过程中, 心理理论能够助力儿童从宏观的阅读观的建立、元认知阅读策略的使用、故事情境模型的构建, 到微观具体的短语、句子、语篇和多文本的理解等能力的提高, 这些证据揭示了心理理论可以从多方面促进儿童阅读能力的发展。进一步的神经生理证据发现, 阅读和心理理论这两个过程的神经活动是有一定重叠的。由此推测, 两者可能具备潜在的双向促进关系。未来需要更深入和长期的纵向追踪研究为两者的关系提供丰富的实证证据。此外, 还应进行更多中国的低龄儿童的研究。随着科技的发展和线上课程的盛行, 也应更多关注多媒体内容阅读对儿童心理理论的影响。     

Theory of mind and mental state discourse during book reading and story‐telling tasks

This article presents three studies conducted in Canada and Australia that relate theory of mind (ToM) development to mental state discourse. In Study 1, mental state discourse was examined while parents and their 5–7‐year‐old children jointly read a storybook which had a surprise ending about the identity of the main character. Comments specific to the mental states of the story characters and discourse after the book had ended were positively related to children's ToM, and this was due to parent elaborations. Studies 2 and 3 examined children's mental state discourse during story‐telling tasks, and in both, mental state discourse of children during narrative was concurrently related to ToM performance. While research has shown that mental state discourse of parents is related to children's ToM acquisition, the current research indicates that children's spontaneous use of mental state language examined outside of the interactional context is also a strong correlate.     

The role of control functions in mentalizing: dual-task studies of theory of mind and executive function

Conflicting evidence has arisen from correlational studies regarding the role of executive control functions in Theory of Mind. The current study used dual-task manipulations of executive functions (inhibition, updating and switching) to investigate the role of these control functions in mental state and non-mental state tasks. The 'Eyes' pictorial test of Theory of Mind showed specific dual-task costs when concurrently performed with an inhibitory secondary task. In contrast, interference effects on a verbal 'Stories' task were general, occurring on both mental state and non-mental state tasks, and across all types of executive function. These findings from healthy functioning adults should help to guide decisions about appropriate methods of assessing ToM in clinical populations, and interpreting deficits in performance in such tasks in the context of more general cognitive dysfunction.     

A teacher‐centered exploration of the relevance of social factors to theory of mind development

Many accounts of children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development favor a cognitive explanation, for example, in terms of mental representational improvements at or before 4 years. Here, we investigated whether social factors as rated by a child's teacher, are related to ToM development. We tested 82 children of 3–6 years on each of four ToM tasks, and their class teacher completed a social questionnaire about each child's playing behavior, sharing, talkativeness, confidence, aggressiveness and outgoingness. A measure of task memory and the child's gender were also recorded. Here, children generally passed ToM tasks after 5 years‐old, but no one gender performed reliably better than the other. Teacher‐rated confidence and playing behavior were correlated to ToM. But in a regression analysis, these were replaced by teacher‐rated talkativeness; with age and memory given primacy in both sets of analyses. It is concluded that maturation and cognitive factors may well have primacy but social factors, facilitated during early primary education, must also be given a role in ToM development.     

Phonological awareness, executive functioning, and theory of mind

Language plays a critical role in theory of mind (ToM) development, particularly the understanding of false beliefs (FB). Further, there is some evidence that the development of FB is important for metalinguistic development, such as the understanding of homonyms and synonyms. However, there is debate regarding the nature of this relationship. This study explored the role of ToM, including FB, understanding and executive function in another aspect of metalinguistic development involving phonological awareness, specifically rhyming. Of interest was the relative role of ToM and executive function, particularly inhibitory control, in children's ability to identify rhymes. Two studies of 4-year-olds demonstrated that ToM understanding was primarily associated with rhyming ability, whereas inhibitory control was not independently related. Results are discussed in terms of children's ability to flexibly shift between different perspectives, by bracketing one perspective and focusing on the other, in both metalinguistic and ToM tasks.     

Self‐Regulation: Relations with Theory of Mind and Social Behaviour

It is argued that self‐regulation skill is necessary both for displaying constructive behaviour and for controlling negative social behaviour, and self‐regulation might affect social behaviours by increasing the ability to understand others' minds. In this research, in order to examine different aspects of self‐regulation and their similarities and differences in terms of their relations with other constructs, we focused on both effortful control and executive function and investigated their concurrent associations with socially competent and aggressive behaviours and theory of mind (ToM). The participants were 212 preschool children in Turkey. We assessed executive functions with behavioural measures and effortful control with mother reports. We used six tasks for comprehensive assessment of mental state understanding. Children's social competency and aggressive behaviour were assessed with teacher reports. Structural equation modelling results showed that when age and receptive language were controlled, ToM was significantly associated with social competence but not aggressive behaviour. Both effortful control and executive functions were significantly related to social competency and ToM; the pathways from each self‐regulation skill were similar in strength. ToM was linked with social competence, but it did not have a mediating role in the relations of self‐regulation with social competence. The findings highlighted the importance of self‐regulation for socio‐cognitive and social development in the preschool years. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relations between theory of mind,mental state language and social adjustment in primary school children

The present study investigated the concurrent relations between theory of mind (ToM), mental state language (MSL) and social adjustment (assessed in terms of emotional instability, prosocial behaviour and aggressiveness) in a sample of 150 children between 8 and 11 years of age. The results showed no correlation between the performance on false belief tasks and the frequency of MSL in a narrative task. False belief understanding was unrelated with all measures of social adjustment, whereas the children’s use of MSL was negatively correlated with emotional instability and aggressiveness, above and beyond the influence of receptive language ability. These findings suggest that having a ToM ability is different from spontaneously using it during non-interactive narrative tasks, and that the two ToM measures are differently related to social competence in primary school children.