Poster #200 - Precursors to Early Theory of Mind: Importance of Visual Perspective Taking

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Significant milestones in children’s “theory of mind” (ToM) -- an understanding that internal mental states motivate behavior -- occur during the preschool years. However, toddlers’ behaviors suggest an earlier, rudimentary understanding of some aspects of mental states. We asked whether these early understandings lay a foundation for later preschool developments.
The current project explores the possibility that visual perspective taking (VPT) may be an important precursor to a more complex ToM manifested in preschool years. Early VPT abilities--the ability to infer what another individual can see--are expressed explicitly by 24 months (Moll & Tomasello, 2006). VPT may provide opportunities for children to infer what others know (Flavell, 1988), or allow children to develop a representational mechanism for sharing attention outside of one’s immediate visual field (Butterworth & Jarrett, 1991) Despite theoretical groundwork, longitudinal investigations examining whether early VPT predicts later ToM are lacking. One prior study showed that VPT at age 2 was associated concurrently with skills related to ToM (i.e., pretense) and other early-emerging ToM abilities (i.e., intention understanding) (Carlson, Mandell & Williams, 2004), but no study has examined early VPT as a predictor of multifaceted, complex mental-state understandings (e.g., understanding diverse desires and beliefs, and false-beliefs), nor have there been investigations comparing VPT and other important skills linked to ToM development (e.g., executive functioning; EF).
Methods: We examined VPT at 2-years-old (Mage = 28.59 months; SD = 1.75; N = 66) as a longitudinal predictor of children’s multifaceted, explicit ToM at 3-years-old (Mage = 39.88 months; SD = 2.34). VPT was assessed with the visual perspective taking task from Carlson et al. (2004), in which children are given a toy to show their parent but the parent is unable to see the toy without child interference. ToM was assessed with the Wellman & Liu (2004) theory of mind scale. Critically, we examined other potential predictors with both theoretical and empirical links to ToM; children’s understanding of their own knowledge states (partial exposure; Rohwer, Kloo & Perner, 2012), ability to manipulate another’s knowledge state (i.e. hide information; assessed with penny hiding task; Hughes & Ensor, 2007), EF (e.g., stroop and working memory tasks), and verbal ability (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, PPVT-III, Dunn & Dunn, 1997.
Results: Age-2 VPT was associated with Age-3 ToM (r=0.24, p<.05). In a hierarchical regression including age, verbal ability, and EF, VPT was the only significant predictor of children’s ToM one year later. Other early-developing abilities (i.e., understanding own knowledge and manipulating others’ knowledge) did not predict age-3 ToM.
Discussion: Although theoretical importance has been placed on VPT, this is one of the first studies to empirically examine VPT longitudinally as a predictor of later ToM, and includes a comprehensive battery of children’s understanding of other’s beliefs and desires. VPT was the only significant predictor of children’s ToM one year later. Adding VPT to the hierarchical model explained an additional 5.9% of the variance in children’s ToM performance. Future research should examine the mechanism through which VPT may influence later ToM.

Authors

• Megan J. Heise, University of California, Davis
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Leckey, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Simona Ghetti, University of California, Davis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lindsay C Bowman, University of California Davis
  Non-Presenting Author