title: The origins of children's metamemory: the role of theory of mind.
abstract: The relation between preschoolers' theory of mind (ToM) and declarative metamemory (DM) was investigated in two studies. The first study focused on 4-year-old children's (N=106) cognitive and affective ToM and their DM. The data showed a significant association between cognitive (but not affective) ToM and DM, independent of verbal ability, non-verbal ability, and working memory. The second study involved 83 children tested at 4 years 6 months of age (and 6 months later) for cognitive ToM and DM. Here, results showed that early cognitive ToM, in particular false-belief understanding, predicts later DM independent of early verbal ability. These data support a view considering cognitive ToM as a precursor of children's DM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy. Electronic address: slecce@unipv.it.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lecce
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Demicheli
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zocchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Palladino
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: 2nd order false belief; Affective theory of mind; Cognitive theory of mind; Declarative metamemory; Theory of mind; ToM development