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.     

Effects of receptive language training on receptive and expressive language development

The effects of a six-month training program in receptive language on receptive and expressive language development were investigated. Developmentally retarded preschoolers were pretested and posttested on one standardized test of receptive language and two tests of expressive language. Both the training and control groups participated in a preschool program. In addition, the training group received a two-sequence training program: (1) reinforcement for matching responses to modeling cues and accompanying verbal requests, and (2) reinforcement for appropriate responses to verbal requests alone. The training group demonstrated a significant increase in appropriate responses to verbal request over base-rate performance after the training and also demonstrated a significantly improved posttest performance on one test of expressive language as compared to the control group.The authors wish to thank Mrs. Helen Huggins and the staff of the Aid to Retarded Children's Preschool Training Center, San Francisco, California, for their assistance in this study. A modified version of this paper was presented at the Gatlinburg Conference on Mental Retardation, March, 1974, Gatlinburg, Tennessee.     

Cumulative risk disparities in children's neurocognitive functioning: a developmental cascade model

The current longitudinal study examined the role of cumulative social risk on children's theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF) across early development. Further, we also tested a cascade model of development in which children's social cognition at 18 months was hypothesized to predict ToM and EF at age 4.5 through intermediary language skills at age 3. We then examined whether this developmental mechanism varied as a function of social risk status. Participants were 501 children recruited when they were newborns, at which point eight psychosocial risk factors were assessed and combined into a metric of cumulative social disadvantage. Families were followed up at 18 months, at which point four social‐cognitive skills were assessed using developmentally sensitive tasks: joint attention, empathy, cooperation, and self‐recognition. Language was measured at age 3 using a standardized measure of receptive vocabulary. At age 3 and 4.5, EF and ToM were measured using previously validated tasks. Results showed that there were notable cumulative risk disparities in overall neurocognitive skill development, and these effects became more differentiated over time. Support was also found for a developmental mechanism wherein the effect of social cognition at 18 months on ToM and EF in the preschool period operated specifically through children's receptive language ability at age 3. This pathway functioned similarly for children with both low‐ and high‐risk backgrounds. These results extend previous findings by documenting the role of cumulative social disadvantage on children's neurocognition and the pathways that link key neurocognitive abilities across early development.     

Fonctions exécutives et théorie de l’esprit chez le jeune enfant : une relation réciproque ?

The aim of this study was to assess the specific relation between 18-month-olds’ performance on tasks measuring language skills, executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM). The ToM tasks included measures of intention and false-belief understanding whereas working memory and inhibitory control were assessed with three EF tasks. Expressive vocabulary was assessed with the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory. The main findings showed that both aspects of ToM are strongly linked at this age to inhibitory control, but not to working memory abilities. Language skills were not associated with either ToM or EF abilities. With regard to inter-tasks coherence within EF and ToM, we replicated previous findings with no consistency across EF tasks but an association between false-belief and intention understanding. Overall, these findings provide evidence for a link between executive function and theory of mind at the youngest age ever tested. They also challenge the view that EF is not required to succeed on the false-belief task based on spontaneous responses.     

Patterns of language impairment and behaviour in boys excluded from school

Background. High levels of behaviour problems are found in children with language impairments, but less is known about the level and nature of language impairment in children with severe behavioural problems. In particular, previous data suggest that at primary age, receptive impairments are more closely related to behaviour problems, whereas expressive language has a closer link at a later age. Aims. The study assessed expressive and receptive language problems in boys excluded from primary and secondary schools, to investigate the extent of impairment, the pattern of relations between age, receptive and expressive language, and relations with different aspects of behaviour. Sample. Nineteen boys (8–16 years of age) who had been excluded from school and 19 non‐excluded controls matched for age and school participated. Method. The sample was given assessments of: receptive language from the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS), and Wechsler Objective Language Dimensions (WOLD); expressive‐language evaluations from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC); auditory working memory evaluations from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF); verbal reasoning (from the WISC); and non‐verbal IQ assessments Raven's matrices. Teachers completed behaviour ratings using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results. Excluded boys were significantly poorer than controls on expressive measures but similar on receptive language and non‐verbal IQ. Boys excluded from primary school were poorer than controls on auditory working memory. Expressive problems were linked with high levels of emotional symptoms. Conclusion. Many of the excluded boys had previously unidentified language problems, supporting the need for early recognition and assessment of language in boys with behaviour problems. Expressive problems in particular may be a risk factor.     

How language relates to belief,desire, and emotion understanding

Two experiments examined syntax and semantics as correlates of theory-of-mind (ToM). In Experiment 1 children’s language was examined at 3 years of age in relation to ToM at 3, 3.5, 4, and 5.5 years. Semantics predicted unique variance in later belief understanding but not desire understanding. Syntax did not explain unique variance in belief or desire. In Experiment 2 two measures of syntax and a measure of semantics were used with 65 3–5-year-olds. The syntax measures tested children’s understanding of word order and embedded clauses. They were related to false belief, but contrary to some predictions, were also related to emotion recognition. Performance on language control tasks with low syntactic demands correlated equally well with false belief. In both experiments performance on the syntax and semantics tasks was highly inter-correlated. We argue that ToM is related to general language ability rather than syntax or semantics per se.     

Exceptional lexical skills but executive language deficits in school starters and young adults with Turners syndrome: implications for X chromosome effects on brain function

TS school starters had enhanced receptive and expressive language on standardised assessment (CELF-P) and enhanced rhyme judgements, spoonerisms, and lexical decision, indicating enhanced phonological skills and word representations. There was marginal but consistent advantage across lexico-semantic tasks. On executive tasks, speeded naming of numbers was impaired but not pictures. Young TS adults had enhanced naming and receptive vocabulary, indicating enhanced semantic skills. There were consistent deficits in executive language: phonemic oral fluency, rhyme fluency, speeded naming of pictures, numbers and colours; sentence completion requiring supression of prepotent responses.Haploinsufficiency of X-chromosome drives mechanisms that affect the anatomical and neurochemical development of the brain, resulting in enhanced temporal lobe aspects of language. These strengths co-exist with impaired development of frontal lobe executive language systems. This means not only that these elements of language can decouple in development but that their very independence is driven by mechanisms linked to the X-chromosome.     

幼儿心理理论发展的一般认知基础--不同心理理论任务表现的特异性与一致性

本研究试图探究中国幼儿心理理论发展的一般变化趋势,通过探查90位3～5岁幼儿在不同心理理论任务表现的特殊性及内在一致性,结果表明：3～5岁间幼儿的心理理论发生急剧变化;幼儿在各任务上的表现总体上存在某种潜在的一致性;但他们在不同任务上的表现存在较大差异,这表明心理理论表现具有显著的任务特异性。     

Developing the Receptive and Productive Use of Pronouns in an Autistic Child:

In Experiment I, a preschooler with language delays and unable to answer “my-your” questions was successfully trained to answer “my-your” questions when reinforced for modeling an adult's answers to questions about possessive pronouns. Despite acquisition of the expressive use of the possessive case, generalization probes under conditions of nonmodeling and nonreinforcement showed no transfer at the receptive and expressive levels. Modeling and reinforcement training procedures in Experiment II improved the receptive use of “my-your” performance, but generalization probes revealed no receptive transfer. These same procedures in Experiment III improved the expressive use of “his-her” answers and, this time, immediate generalization of training for “his-her” occurred at the expressive and receptive levels. To facilitate generalization from the expressive to the receptive level, special programming-for-generalization procedures were used, involving reduced rated of reinforcement during training (Experiment I) and intermixing training trails with generalization probe trails (Experiment II).     

Music and Language Skills of Children with Williams Syndrome

We examined music and language abilities in a group of children with Williams syndrome (WS, n = 19) and a comparison group of normal children (n = 19) equivalent for receptive vocabulary. Consistent with previous reports and the model of Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (Rourke, 1989), the children with WS scored better on verbal than performance measures of the WISC-III, and performance on simpler verbal tasks (e.g., receptive vocabulary) was superior to performance on more complex verbal tasks (e.g., comprehension). Performance on music tests was relatively good, being comparable to mental age based on receptive vocabulary and similar to that of the comparison group. Music and language abilities were moderately correlated for both groups of children. Compared to normal children, the WS group expressed greater liking of music and a greater range of emotional responses to music.     

Direct and Indirect Associations of Empathy,Theory of Mind,and Language with Prosocial Behavior: Gender Differences in Primary School Children

The authors examined the contributions of empathic concern, perspective taking, theory of mind (ToM), and receptive language to prosocial behavior in a sample of primary school children between 8 and 11?years old. Results showed that empathic concern, perspective taking, and ToM had direct positive effects on prosocial behavior. Girls exhibited higher levels of empathic concern and prosocial behavior; furthermore, gender moderated the observed associations, as perspective taking and ToM were positively and significantly associated with prosocial behavior in boys but not in girls. Last, two indirect paths were detected: empathic concern partially mediated the relation between perspective taking and prosocial behavior, and receptive language had an indirect effect on prosocial behavior by increasing ToM ability. Implications for understanding the impact of the four social-cognitive skills on children’s prosocial development are discussed.     

Longitudinal Relations Between 2-Year-Olds' Language and 4-Year-Olds' Theory of Mind

Maternal reports of child vocabulary, utterance length, morpheme usage, and sentence complexity and experimenter-assessed receptive and expressive language were obtained at the end of the 2nd year for European American middle-class toddlers (N = 27). Maternal verbal intelligence and socioeconomic status were also measured. At 48 months of age, children's false-belief understanding and verbal intelligence were evaluated. Individual differences in child language at 24 months and child verbal IQ at 48 months predicted unique variance in performance on the false-belief tasks at 48 months, although only the early language factor findings were statistically significant. These findings demonstrate previously unobserved relations between early language and later acquisition of complex concepts related to mind.     

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

This 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.     

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     

Probing the depth of infants’ theory of mind: disunity in performance across paradigms

There is currently a hot debate in the literature regarding whether or not infants have a true theory of mind (ToM) understanding. According to the mentalistic view, infants possess the same false belief understanding that older children have but their competence is masked by task demands. On the other hand, others have proposed that preverbal infants are incapable of mental state attribution and simply respond to superficial features of the events in spontaneous‐responses tasks. In the current study, we aimed to clarify the nature of infants’ performance in tasks designed to assess implicit theory of mind (ToM) by adopting a within‐subject design that involved testing 18‐month‐old infants on two batteries of tasks measuring the same four ToM constructs (intention, desire, true belief, and false belief). One battery included tasks based on the violation‐of‐ expectation (VOE) procedure, whereas the other set of tasks was based on the interactive, helping procedure. Replication of the original findings varied across tasks, due to methodological changes and the use of a within‐subject design. Convergent validity was examined by comparing performance on VOE and interactive tasks that are considered to be measures of the same theory of mind concept. The results revealed no significant relations between performance on the pairs of tasks for any of the four ToM constructs measured. This pattern of results is discussed in terms of current conflicting accounts of infants’ performance on implicit ToM tasks. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3vqfe_zdhA&feature=youtu.be     

Links between theory of mind and executive function in young children with autism: clues to developmental primacy

There has been much theoretical discussion of a functional link between theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF) in autism. This study sought to establish the relationship between ToM and EF in young children with autism (M = 5 years, 6 months) and to examine issues of developmental primacy. Thirty children with autism and 40 typically developing children, matched on age and ability, were assessed on a battery of tasks measuring ToM (1st- and 2nd-order false belief) and components of EF (planning, set shifting, inhibition). A significant correlation emerged between ToM and EF variables in the autism group, independent of age and ability, while ToM and higher order planning ability remained significantly related in the comparison group. Examination of the pattern of ToM-EF impairments in the autism group revealed dissociations in 1 direction only: impaired ToM with intact EF. These findings support the view that EF may be 1 important factor in the advancement of ToM understanding in autism. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Theory of Mind and Executive Functions in Young Bilingual Children

Few studies have explored the relationship between theory of mind (ToM), executive function (EF), and bilingualism at the same time. In this study 14 young bilingual children were compared with monolingual children on a test battery composed of 5 ToM tests, 5 EF tests, and 1 test of general language ability. The result showed that despite significantly lower verbal ability, the bilingual children outperformed the monolingual ones on tests of EF. There were no differences in ToM performance. The authors argue that there is a strong relationship between bilingualism and EF, but, contrary to results from earlier studies, they could not find any relationship between bilingualism and ToM. EF did not predict ToM performance. Lack of a significant relationship could be due to the children's young age and consequently their low scores on the ToM tasks.     

从假装到心理表征理论:假装认识训练的影响

研究探究假装情境及假装认识对幼儿心理理论(Theory of mind)发展的影响。实验一考察60名3~4岁幼儿在假装情境下的信念认识任务中的表现,发现幼儿对假装的早期认识的出现要早于对信念的认识的出现,假装情境对幼儿的信念认识没有直接促进作用。实验二对42名在信念认识任务上表现不佳的幼儿进行假装认识训练,结果发现假装认识训练促进了幼儿的信念认识,促进效应须经历一段时间才显现。研究支持假装认识在心理理论发展中具有重要作用的假设,但潜在作用机制仍有待进一步探究。     

Socio-economic status,executive functions,and theory of mind ability in adolescents: Relationships with language ability and cortisol

Socio-economic status (SES) is linked to the development of cognitive abilities, particularly language and executive processes. It is unclear whether these represent a single or independent correlates. We studied 110 Ecuadorian youths aged 12–17 with measures of SES, language, executive function, and theory of mind (ToM), a.k.a. mentalizing. A subsample gave hair samples to estimate recent cortisol levels. Restricting analyses to reliable measures, SES was highly associated with language skill, and to a lesser extent with executive function and ToM performance. However, those latter associations were attenuated and non-significant when language ability was controlled for statistically. Systemic cortisol levels were not associated with SES, but were significantly and negatively correlated with ToM, independent of variation in language skills. We conclude that language development underlies most of the impact of SES on executive function and ToM ability of adolescents, but that stress-related cortisol may have an independent, direct effect on mentalizing.     

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.