ERIC Number: EJ1312835
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: N/A
The Development of Advanced Theory of Mind in Middle Childhood: A Longitudinal Study from Age 5 to 10 Years
Osterhaus, Christopher; Koerber, Susanne
Child Development, v92 n5 p1872-1888 Sep-Oct 2021
This 5-year longitudinal study investigated advanced theory-of-mind (AToM) development in 161 German 5- to 10-year-olds (89 females, 72 males). Core aspects of AToM developed nonlinearly, with children reaching a milestone at the age of 7 years, around when they attained the conceptual insight that mental states can be recursive. In late elementary school, a multicomponent battery was used. Performance on many aspects of AToM was predicted by information-processing skills (intelligence and language at 6 years), but not by the age when children acquired the basic conceptual insight; only some naturalistic, social-interpretative tasks were correlated with children's age at acquisition. This study documents significant developmental progressions in middle-childhood AToM and suggests that different mechanisms may underlie diverse aspects of social cognition.
Descriptors: Theory of Mind, Social Cognition, Elementary School Students, Foreign Countries, Longitudinal Studies, Child Development, Measures (Individuals), Cognitive Processes, Correlation, Intelligence, Developmental Stages
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A