Forgetting common ground: six- to seven-year-olds have an overinterpretive theory of mind.
Four- to 9-year-olds and adults (N = 256) viewed a series of pictures that were covered with occluders to reveal nondescript or identifiable parts. Participants predicted how 3 characters, 1 who had previously viewed the full picture and 2 who had not, would interpret the obstructed drawings. Results showed significant development between 4 and 9 years and between 9 years and adulthood in understanding thought diversity as well as situations in which people should think alike. There was also evidence for a U-shaped developmental curve, with 6- to 7-year-olds most often overextending the rule that people will think differently, particularly on the initial testing trials. Performance on the different interpretive theory-of-mind measures was differentially related to individual differences in inhibitory control and verbal working memory.
Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. khlaga@ucdavis.edu
Kristin Hansen
KH
Lagattuta
Liat
L
Sayfan
Amanda J
AJ
Blattman
D000367:Age Factors; D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D005863:Gestalt Theory; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007223:Infant; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010466:Perceptual Closure; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D056345:Theory of Mind