Minding the children: A longitudinal study of mental state talk, theory of mind, and behavioural adjustment from the age of 3 to 10

The longitudinal relations between mental state talk and theory of mind

BACKGROUND

Previous investigations of associations between children's Theory of Mind (ToM) and parents' use of words relating to mental states (or mental state talk; MST) have predominantly been performed using cross-sectional designs and false belief tasks as indicators of ToM.

METHODS

We here report a longitudinal study of 3-5 year-olds (n = 80) investigating ToM development using the ToM scale and three different parental MST types: the absolute frequency of words, the proportions of words, and the vocabulary size.

RESULTS

Our results revealed significant relations between all parental MST types and later child ToM. Proportions of parental MST were most often related to the children's ToM at 4 years of age. However, the rate at which the children developed ToM from 3 to 5 years of age was associated with the other two parental MST type measures, namely, absolute frequency and vocabulary size. Additionally, our analyses revealed that parents' use of cognitive MST words (e.g., think, or know) were most frequently associated with children's ToM at 4 years of age compared to emotion and desire-related MST words.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that the parental ability to capture the thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge present in different scenarios is associated with children's ability to understand other minds. Moreover, parents' way of talking about the mental states of others is associated with their children's ability to understand and further develop ToM.

Children in ethnically diverse classrooms and those with cross-ethnic friendships excel at understanding others' minds

This study examined the link between classroom ethnic diversity, cross-ethnic friendships, and children's theory of mind. In total, 730 children in the United Kingdom (54.7% girls, 51.5% White) aged 8 to 13 years completed measures of theory of mind in 2019/2020. Controlling for verbal ability, executive function, peer social preference, and teacher-reported demographic characteristics, greater classroom ethnic diversity provided opportunities for cross-ethnic friendships, and children with cross-ethnic friendships performed better than peers without cross-ethnic friendships on theory of mind. These results extend accounts of intergroup contact by using direct assessments of children's theory of mind and advance social accounts of theory of mind by demonstrating how experiences outside the family are linked with theory of mind.

Relación entre modelos operantes internos y nivel educacional materno, con la teoría de la mente en niños chilenos de 3 y 4 años: rol mediador del lenguaje mentalizante materno

La teoría de la mente (ToM) es la capacidad de reconocer los propios estados mentales y predecir los de otros, habilidad fundamental en el desarrollo socioemocional/cognitivo en preescolares. El presente estudio buscó describir la ToM de niños chilenos de 3 y 4 años, analizar las diferencias en su desarrollo según la edad y el rol mediador del lenguaje mentalizante(LM) materno, considerando el sexo de los niños, los modelos operantes internos (MOI) y el nivel educacional materno. La muestra fueron 110 niños con sus madres. Se aplicó un cuestionario sociodemográfico, pruebas para evaluar la ToM, el LM y los MOI de las madres. Un 50.9 % de los niños se ubicó en el quintil 1 de la ToM y ninguno logró llegar al quinto. Las habilidades de la ToM con un mayor nivel de logro diferenciaron entre pretender y realidad (60.0 %) y la de diferenciar laperspectiva visual propia y de otro (50.9 %). Un 59.1 % de los niños no logró inferir deseos a través de la mirada, un 83.6 % no logró la habilidad de acceso al conocimiento, y un 100 % no logró la falsa creencia. Los resultados muestran diferencias significativas entre niños de distintos rangos etarios en el desarrollo de la ToM, sugiriendo una creciente dificultad de adquisición de sus habilidades. Además, un mayor lm de las madres se relacionó con mayor desarrollo de la ToM en los niños,con un rol mediador en la influencia de los moi y nivel educacional materno sobre la ToM.

A study on the use of mental state terms in natural contexts of Chinese children aged 3 to 6 years

Chinese children's mental state terms were studied in a sample of 79 Chinese mother-child pairs (with children aged 3-6 years). Children's mental state term categories were calculated according to age, gender, and context as well as socioeconomic status (SES) variations. The study found that there were no significant age or gender differences in the Chinese children's mental state terms use during the 3- to 6-year stage and that the Chinese children's perception, disposition, and cognition terms were highly dependent on the use of particular words: "see" "like" and "know". After removing the highly dependent word "know," children's cognition terms showed significant age differences. Further research on disposition terms showed that with age negative terms displayed an increasing trend. In addition, the use of Chinese children's mental state terms was closely related to specific contexts. For example, references to volition occurred most often in the context of drawing, whereas references to cognition occurred when playing with blocks. Meanwhile, disposition terms were maintained at a minimum frequency in all contexts, although the picture book used in the reading context was embedded with many disposition cues. Moreover, there was no significant difference in the mental state terms of children aged 3 to 6 years with high and low SES. Furthermore, in addition to perception terms, mothers' mental state terms were significantly and positively related to children's mental state terms of the same type. These findings provide evidence for the developmental pattern of mentalization development and appropriate education for Chinese children aged 3 to 6 years.

Doll play prompts social thinking and social talking: Representations of internal state language in the brain

Doll play provides opportunities for children to practice social skills by creating imaginary worlds, taking others' perspectives, and talking about others' internal states. Previous research using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) found a region over the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) was more active during solo doll play than solo tablet play, implying that doll play might present opportunities for rehearsing theory of mind and empathy skills, even when playing alone. In this research, we addressed this more directly by investigating 4-8-year-old children's (N = 33) use of internal state language (ISL; i.e., references to emotions, desires, and cognitions) when playing with dolls and on tablets, both by themselves and with a social partner, and their associated brain activity in the pSTS using fNIRS. We found that children used more ISL about others when playing with dolls than when playing on tablets, particularly when they were playing alone. This mirrored the patterns seen in pSTS activity in previous research. When individual variability in ISL about others was considered, more ISL about others was linked to stronger pSTS activation. Thus, variability in pSTS activity during play is not about the perceptual or physical differences between toys (e.g., dolls are more human-like) but about what children think about when they engage in different kinds of play. This is the first research to investigate brain activity during spontaneously occurring ISL and indicates that children have a tendency to take and discuss others' perspectives during doll play, with implications for social processing in the brain. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/58HgxbuhBzU.

Seven-year-olds' references to internal states when playing with toy figures and a video game

References to internal states (e.g., thoughts, feelings, and desires) indicate children's appreciation of people's inner worlds. Many children spend time playing video games; however, the nature of children's speech when doing so has received little attention. We investigated the use of internal state language (ISL) as 251 seven-year-olds played with toy figures and a video game designed for the study. Although children used ISL more when playing with toy figures, children used ISL in both contexts, highlighting video game play as a context where children demonstrate their appreciation of inner worlds. Children's speech in the two contexts differed in how ISL was used: references to children's own internal states were more common when playing the video game, and the characters' internal states more common when playing with the toy figures. These findings are discussed with reference to the format of the play activities affording different opportunities to discuss internal states.

HIGHLIGHTS

In traditional play children refer to internal states, however, it is unclear whether this occurs when they play video games.Children referred to internal states when playing with toy figures and a video game, but did so more with the toys.Children's video game play can be used as a new context for the study of children's social understanding.

Impact of Teacher's Mental State Talk on Young Children's Theory of Mind: A Quasi-Experiment Study

This study investigated the relationship between teachers' mental state talk and young children's theory of mind with a quasi-experiment. In total, 56 young children were assigned to the experiment group (mean_age = 41 months, SD = 2.47, 46% girls) and the control group (mean_age = 40.68 months, SD = 2.23, 43% girls). The experiment group was engaged in a 12-week intervention program with mental state talk in storytelling, casual conversations, and role-playing games, whereas the control group received no interventions. All the children were tested with three theory of mind (ToM) tasks before and after the intervention. The results indicated that the experimental group had a significant improvement in the ToM scores, whereas the control group showed no significant change. The educational implications of these findings are discussed.

The link between parental mental state talk and children's lying: An indirect effect via false belief understanding

Past research shows that parental mental state talk (MST) is closely associated with children's theory-of-mind (ToM) understanding. The current study extends previous work by investigating whether parental MST is also associated with children's ToM in action (i.e., lying). A total of 90 Singaporean 3- to 5-year-olds participated in this study with their parents. Parental MST was measured using a storytelling task with a wordless picture book. Mediation analysis revealed an indirect effect: Children's ToM understanding served as a mediator in the path between parental MST and children's lying, whereas there was no significant direct effect of parental MST on children's lying. This study is the first to focus on the relation between parental MST and ToM in an applied setting. Our findings suggest that parental MST can help children to develop sociocognitive skills, which in turn can help children to gain the insight that lying may be used as a strategy for personal gain.

Keeping cultural in cultural evolutionary psychology: Culture shapes indigenous psychologies in specific ecologies

In Cognitive Gadgets, Heyes seeks to unite evolutionary psychology with cultural evolutionary theory. Although we applaud this unifying effort, we find it falls short of considering how culture itself evolves to produce indigenous psychologies fitted to particular environments. We focus on mentalizing and autobiographical memory as examples of how socialization practices embedded within culture build cognitive adaptations.