Interpreting physical and mental metaphors: Is Theory of Mind associated with pragmatics in middle childhood?

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena LECCE ◽  
Luca RONCHI ◽  
Paola DEL SETTE ◽  
Luca BISCHETTI ◽  
Valentina BAMBINI

AbstractWe investigated the association between individual differences in metaphor understanding and Theory of Mind (ToM) in typically developing children. We distinguished between two types of metaphors and created a Physical and Mental Metaphors task, echoing a similar distinction for ToM. Nine-year-olds scored lower than older age-groups in ToM as well as in the interpretation of mental, but not physical, metaphors. Moreover, nine-year-olds (but not older children) who are better in ToM are also better in interpreting mental, but not physical, metaphors. This suggests that the link between metaphor and ToM is stronger when metaphorical interpretation involves mental aspects, and it is more evident in early rather than later childhood.

2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Edwards ◽  
Robert A. Fox ◽  
Catherine L. Rogers

Preschool-age children with phonological disorders were compared to their typically developing age peers on their ability to discriminate CVC words that differed only in the identity of the final consonant in whole-word and gated conditions. The performance of three age groups of typically developing children and adults was also assessed on the same task. Children with phonological disorders performed more poorly than age-matched peers, and younger typically developing children performed more poorly than older children and adults, even when the entire CVC word was presented. Performance in the whole-word condition was correlated with receptive vocabulary size and a measure of articulatory accuracy across all children. These results suggest that there is a complex relationship among word learning skills, the ability to attend to fine phonetic detail, and the acquisition of articulatory-acoustic and acoustic-auditory representations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Emily Laccona ◽  
Betty Kollia ◽  
Jim Tsiamtsiouris

The goal of this research was to investigate children’s recall of optional and obligatory elements of a script-based story as the retention period increased. Typically developing children, 20 kindergarteners and 20 second graders, participated. Children were asked to retell a story immediately after exposure to it, as well as one week post-, and two weeks post-exposure. Findings provide evidence that children of both age groups were able to marshal their script knowledge to recall stories over time. Older children were able to recall more elements and more of both, obligatory and optional elements, than younger children across all recall attempts.


Author(s):  
Edith Theresa Gabriel ◽  
Raphaela Oberger ◽  
Michaela Schmoeger ◽  
Matthias Deckert ◽  
Stefanie Vockh ◽  
...  

Abstract Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to represent and attribute mental states to oneself and others. So far, research regarding ToM processing across adolescence is scarce. Existing studies either yield inconsistent results or did not or not thoroughly investigate aspects like higher order ToM and associated neuropsychological variables which the current study tried to address. 643 typically developing early, middle, and late adolescents (age groups 13–14; 15–16; 17–18) performed cognitive and affective ToM tasks as well as neuropsychological tasks tapping the cognitive or affective domain. Regarding both ToM types, 15- to 16-year-olds and 17- to 18-year-olds outperformed 13- to 14-year-olds, whereas females were superior regarding cognitive ToM. Across adolescence, cognitive and affective ToM correlated with attention and affective intelligence, whereas working memory, language comprehension, and figural intelligence additionally correlated with cognitive ToM. In early adolescence, attention correlated with both ToM types, whereas cognitive ToM further correlated with language comprehension and affective ToM with verbal intelligence, verbal fluency, and verbal flexibility. In middle and late adolescence, affective intelligence correlated with both ToM types, whereas cognitive ToM additionally correlated with working memory, language comprehension, and figural intelligence. The current study shows a developmental step regarding cognitive and affective ToM in middle adolescence as well as gender differences in cognitive ToM processing. Associations between neuropsychological variables and ToM processing were shown across adolescence and within age groups. Results give new insights into social cognition in adolescence and are well supported by neuroscientific and neurobiological studies regarding ToM and the integration of cognitive and affective processes. Graphic abstract


2019 ◽  
Vol 09 (01) ◽  
pp. 09-11
Author(s):  
Shrunga Manchanapura Shivalingaiah ◽  
Fathimath Ramseena ◽  
Nafeesath Shareen

Abstract Background and Objective Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability that can be attributed to mental status beliefs, intents, emotions, proficiency, etc., to oneself and to others, and the understanding that others also have intentions, conceptions, desires, and perspectives that are different from one’s own. Daily social life depends on the ability to evaluate the behavior of other people on the basis of their mental state such as their beliefs, intentions, compassions, and goals. This study was conducted to explore the ToM abilities in preschoolers. Methods A total of 36 preschoolers participated in the study. Two stories were narrated to the children, the classic Sally-Anne Task and the Smarty’s Task. In both the tasks, the responses of the children were scored as either true belief or false belief. Results The results of the present study revealed mixed responses among the preschoolers. It was found that 3- to 4-year-old children had more false beliefs for both the tasks when compared with 4- to 5-year-old. Conclusion This study highlights the importance of ToM abilities in typically growing children and other clinical population. It can be concluded that the ToM abilities were improved in typically developing children. Future studies are required to explore the higher levels of embedding of ToM, and also to incorporate it in the clinical population.


Psihologija ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 23-23
Author(s):  
Sanja Simlesa ◽  
Kaja Hacin ◽  
Maja Cepanec ◽  
Jasmina Ivsac-Pavlisa

The ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others, known as the theory of mind (ToM), has been widely researched over the past 40 years, along with its relation to language comprehension. However, a majority of the research on the relation between ToM and language used only verbal tasks assessing false belief understanding as a measure of ToM. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the relation between language and ToM, using a larger battery of ToM measures, with different language demands. A total of 203 typically developing children between 46 and 68 months of age, with average nonverbal cognitive skills, were assessed using language comprehension and ToM tasks. The language aspect was assessed using the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (Language Comprehension scale A). To assess ToM, verbal and non-verbal tasks were taken from the ToM subtest of the NEPSY-II. Results indicated a significant correlation between language comprehension and verbal and non-verbal ToM measures. Hierarchical regression showed that language comprehension was a significant predictor for children's performance on both verbal and non-verbal ToM tasks. Specifically, language comprehension affected ToM, regardless of the language demands of the ToM tasks. However, language comprehension was a stronger predictor for verbal than non-verbal ToM tasks. The results of this study contribute to the view that the relation between language and ToM is fundamental and exceeds the features of specific tasks.


Author(s):  
Dr. Sheetal Gupta ◽  
Dr. Anita Gupta ◽  
Dr. Sushmita Ahirwal

Visual perception is the process by which individuals assign meaning, understanding, and interpretation to what they have seen. The aim of this study was to determine the visual perceptual skills of typically developing Indian children on MVPT-4. A sample of 180 typically developing Indian students were included in the study using convenience sampling method. They were divided in six age groups with age ranging from 6years to 12 years with 30 children in each age group. It was found that visual perceptual skills of typically developing Indian children in 6-12 years of age group can be assessed using MVPT-4. Analysis was done using One-way Anova to compare the mean raw score of each age group. There was a significant difference between the age groups at statistical value of p< 0.001. The score improved with age, signifying refined and matured visual perceptual skills in older children. Age influences visual-perceptual skills of these children. This study also provides a foundation for further researches and highlights the importance of MVPT-4 as a screening tool to be used by the occupational therapist in order to assess the visual perceptual skills of children.


Author(s):  
Piyush Sone ◽  
Ratan Jadhav ◽  
Medha Karbhari Adhyaru

<p><strong>Background:</strong> Syntax is an important aspect of language. It is very important to study syntax development in the children with hearing impairment (HI). The aim of study was to compare syntactic abilities of Marathi speaking children with hearing impairment using cochlear implant and typical developing children in the age range of 4 to 7 years.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Ninety typically developing children, 26 language age matched children using cochlear implants were included in this study. They were grouped into three age groups: 4-5, 5-6 and 6-7 years. Syntax test in Marathi which has six subtests in comprehension: wh-questions, negations/yes/no questions, post-positions, plurals, tenses, person, number, gender markers and five subtests in expression: negation/yes/no questions, post-positions, plurals, tenses, person, number, gender markers was administered through a laptop to children in each group.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Results showed typically developing children performed significantly better than children with hearing impairment using cochlear implant I the age range of 4 to 5 years. Except postposition and PNG markers of comprehensive syntactic abilities all other syntactic abilities were significantly poor in children using cochlear implants. Only expressive syntactic abilities were significantly poor among children using cochlear implants in the age range of 6 to 7 years.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Overall, the findings of this study showed that that Syntax test in Marathi can identify impairment in the syntactic ability in Marathi speaking children with hearing impairment. Children with hearing impairment using cochlear implants showed poor syntactic abilities.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Lee ◽  
Fiona E. Gibbon ◽  
Kimberley Spivey

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate whether reduced speech intelligibility in children with cleft palate affects social and personal attribute judgments made by typically developing children of different ages. Design The study (1) measured the correlation between intelligibility scores of speech samples from children with cleft palate and social and personal attribute judgments made by typically developing children based on these samples and (2) compared the attitude judgments made by children of different ages. Participants A total of 90 typically developing children, 30 in each of three age groups (7 to 8 years, 9 to 10 years, and 11 to 12 years). Outcome Measures Speech intelligibility scores and typically developing children s attitudes were measured using eight social and personal attributes on a three-point rating scale. Results There was a significant correlation between the speech intelligibility scores and attitude judgments for a number of traits: “sick-healthy” as rated by the children aged 7 to 8 years, “no friends-friends” by the children aged 9 to 10 years, and “ugly-good looking” and “no friends-friends” by the children aged 11 to 12 years. Children aged 7 to 8 years gave significantly lower ratings for “mean-kind” but higher ratings for “shy-outgoing” when compared with the other two groups. Conclusions Typically developing children tended to make negative social and personal attribute judgments about children with cleft palate based solely on the intelligibility of their speech. Society, educators, and health professionals should work together to ensure that children with cleft palate are not stigmatized by their peers.


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