Tell me, What’s on Your Mind? An Exploration of Mental-State Talk Discussions

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

For the last four decades, individual differences in children’s ability to represent others’ minds, or to employ a ‘theory of mind’ (ToM), has been a topic of intensive study in social developmental research. Social models of theory-of-mind development suggest that stories and conversations about mental states in particular play a pivotal role in the emergence of children’s understanding of others’ minds (Nelson, 2005; Carpendale & Lewis, 2006). According to these accounts, as children explore and navigate the social world around them, they develop expectations about how social interactions may unfold. Frequent exposure to these situations, for example through conversations or book-reading, increases the chances that a child has to iteratively refine their social understanding, taking into consideration the many ways in which humans respond to one another. This symposium showcases four studies that implement novel and varied ways to investigate, manipulate, and quantify the influences of mental-state talk on children’s ToM through: (1) the development of a brief parent-focused training study, (2) the implementation of a conversational training study in middle childhood, (3) the exploration and analysis of book content for implicit and explicit theory of mind concepts, and (4) the use of cross-cultural research to establish the universality of parental mental-state discourse and its relation to deontic reasoning. These diverse approaches converge to provide insight into how we can investigate influences on children’s ToM development.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chairs

• Shannon Francis, University of Birmingham

• Rory T. Devine, University of Birmingham

Individual Presentations

• Mind Your Language: A Brief, Knowledge-Based Intervention to Promote Parental Mental-State Talk in Parent-Child Interactions - Presenting Author: Shannon Francis, University of Birmingham; Non-Presenting Author: Ian Apperly, University of Birmingham; Non-Presenting Author: Rory T. Devine, University of Birmingham

• Training Children’s Theory of Mind in Middle Childhood: The Role of Conversations - Presenting Author: Federica Bianco, University of Bergamo; Non-Presenting Author: Serena Lecce, University of Pavia

• A Framework for Identifying Implicit and Explicit Theory of Mind Concepts in Children’s Storybooks - Presenting Author: Virginia L Tompkins, The Ohio State University at Lima

• “What Do You Think You Should Do Now?” Theory of Mind, Deontic Reasoning and Parent-Child Conversations About Minds and Rules - Presenting Author: Hsiu-Ping Tan, University of Otago; Non-Presenting Author: Mele Taumoepeau, University of Otago