Constructing the Social Mind: Language and False-Belief Understanding

2020 ◽  
pp. 207-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie E. Pyers
Keyword(s):  
False Belief ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Mind

Lying and Deception in Development

2020 ◽  
pp. 122-130
Author(s):  
Philippe Rochat
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
False Belief ◽  
The Other ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
Symbolic Functioning ◽  
Representational Level

Human self-consciousness and symbolic functioning bring deception to new levels, incomparable to all the other forms of deception found in other animals or in nature in general. It brings intention and open-ended delusional redescription of reality to fit our social needs, boost our self-worth, and maintain semblance of self-unity. Children learn and develop quickly the ability to use semblances as the primary tool in their navigation of the social world, gaining affiliation through the debunking and deliberate creation of false or pseudo beliefs. In fact, the catalogue of lies and deception found in toddlers starting at two years, even if they are at basic, putatively nonstrictly representational level (i.e., without explicit false belief understanding) is stunning.

The relationships among social cognition, peer acceptance, and social behavior in Israeli kindergarteners

2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil Diesendruck ◽  
Adar Ben-Eliyahu
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Peer Acceptance ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Cognitive Capacities ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diverse Cultures

The present study investigated the relationships among Israeli kindergarten children's social cognitive capacities, their popularity, and their social behavior. We found that children's understanding of others' behavioral motives was positively related to their popularity, that children's false-belief understanding was positively related to peers' positive behavioral and teachers' prosocial evaluations of them, and that children's understanding of emotions was positively related to teachers' prosocial ratings but negatively related to both peers' negative behavioral and teachers' aggressiveness evaluations of them. Moreover, we found that Israeli kindergarten children value the same kinds of social behaviors in their peers as do children from other cultures. The findings substantiate the importance of assessing the implications of a variety of socio-cognitive capacities to the social functioning of young children from diverse cultures.

When Injury Clouds Understanding of Others: Theory of Mind after Mild TBI in Preschool Children

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 483-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Bellerose ◽  
Annie Bernier ◽  
Cindy Beaudoin ◽  
Jocelyn Gravel ◽  
Miriam H. Beauchamp
Keyword(s):  
Preschool Children ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Externalizing Behavior ◽  
Brain Injuries ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Post Injury ◽  
Mild Tbi ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
The Social

AbstractThere is evidence to suggest that social skills, such as the ability to understand the perspective of others (theory of mind), may be affected by childhood traumatic brain injuries; however, studies to date have only considered moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study aimed to assess theory of mind after early, mild TBI (mTBI). Fifty-one children who sustained mTBI between 18 and 60 months were evaluated 6 months post-injury on emotion and desires reasoning and false-belief understanding tasks. Their results were compared to that of 50 typically developing children. The two groups did not differ on baseline characteristics, except for pre- and post-injury externalizing behavior. The mTBI group obtained poorer scores relative to controls on both the emotion and desires task and the false-belief understanding task, even after controlling for pre-injury externalizing behavior. No correlations were found between TBI injury characteristics and theory of mind. This is the first evidence that mTBI in preschool children is associated with theory of mind difficulties. Reduced perspective taking abilities could be linked with the social impairments that have been shown to arise following TBI. (JINS, 2015,21, 483–493)

Predictors of mental state understanding in preschoolers of varying socioeconomic backgrounds

2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela W. Garner ◽  
Stephanie M. Curenton ◽  
Kelli Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Real Life ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Cognitive Variables ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Disadvantaged Preschoolers

Two studies investigated the influence of age, language, and family background on the development of preschoolers' social cognitive skills. Study 1 examined variability in economically disadvantaged preschoolers' understanding of fantasy and evaluated the relation of age and language to children's skill in this area. Children were shown drawings of fantasy and real-life events and asked if the event could happen in real life and to justify their responses. Children were more likely to answer correctly when the drawing depicted real-life events. Age and language were positively related to children's overall understanding of fantasy. In Study 2, both low and middle SES preschoolers were included and two false belief understanding measures were added to the battery of tasks. As before, age and language were related to fantasy understanding as well as to false belief performance. In addition, SES was predictive of fantasy understanding, but not false belief performance, regardless of how it was assessed. Social competence was unrelated to the social cognitive variables, even when the effects of age, language, and SES were controlled.

False belief understanding: Children catch it from classmates of different ages

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifang Wang ◽  
Yanjie Su
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Location Task ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Ages ◽  
Larger Sample ◽  
Better Than

Two experiments were conducted to compare the false belief understanding of children who have no siblings, but have classmates of different ages in kindergarten. In Experiment 1, 4- and 5-year-olds completed two unexpected location tasks. We found that 4-year-olds with classmates of different ages performed significantly better than those with classmates of the same age. This result was replicated in a larger sample in Experiment 2 in which the children were asked to complete an unexpected location task and an unexpected content task. The findings suggested that the presence of minds with varied ages stimulates the social cognitive understanding of young children, particularly for 4-year-olds. The findings of the present study give a particularly clear view of the effect of classmates of different ages on young children's theory of mind development, extending findings in other research on the advantage of having siblings.

Pragmatic Language Performance of Children Adopted Internationally

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 501-514
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Hwa-Froelich ◽  
Hisako Matsuo
Keyword(s):  
Social Communication ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Pragmatic Language ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Language Performance ◽  
Emotion Identification ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Pragmatic Communication ◽  
Eastern European Countries

Purpose Pragmatic language is important for social communication across all settings. Children adopted internationally (CAI) may be at risk of poorer pragmatic language because of adverse early care, delayed adopted language development, and less ability to inhibit. The purpose of this study was to compare pragmatic language performance of CAI from Asian and Eastern European countries with a nonadopted group of children who were of the same age and from similar socioeconomic backgrounds as well as explore the relationship among emotion identification, false belief understanding, and inhibition variables with pragmatic language performance. Method Using a quasi-experimental design, 35 four-year-old CAI (20 Asian, 15 Eastern European) and 33 children who were not adopted were included in this study. The children's pragmatic language, general language, and social communication (emotion identification of facial expressions, false belief understanding, inhibition) were measured. Comparisons by region of origin and adoption experience were completed. We conducted split-half correlation analyses and entered significant correlation variables into simple and backward regression models. Results Pragmatic language performance differed by adoption experience. The adopted and nonadopted groups demonstrated different correlation patterns. Language performance explained most of the pragmatic language variance. Discussion Because CAI perform less well than their nonadopted peers on pragmatic communication measures and different variables are related to their pragmatic performance, speech-language pathologists may need to adapt assessment and intervention practices for this population.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document