Nondecomposable idiom understanding in children: recursive theory of mind and working memory.
Which skills are required to start understanding ambiguous, unfamiliar nondecomposable idioms in context? In this study, we examined the contributions of both second-order false-belief understanding and working memory to the understanding of unfamiliar nondecomposable idioms in children aged 6, 7 and 8 years old. We assumed that, in order to process these idioms, children would have to be able to (a) take a double perspective (Perner & Wimmer, 1985), (b) maintain both literal and figurative meanings as being different from the expression itself, and (c) take the context into account. Six-, 7- and 8-year-old children performed three, second-order false-belief tasks and three working-memory tasks, and listened to 15 nondecomposable idioms inserted into a context, before performing a multiple-choice task. Results indicated that nondecomposable idiom understanding was explained by theory-of-mind skills.
Department of Psychology, Université de Reims, France. stephanie.caillies@univ-reims.fr
Stéphanie
S
Caillies
Sandrine
S
Le Sourn-Bissaoui
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012660:Semantics; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*