Poster #189 - Bilingualism and Theory of Mind: Variation within Bilingual Preschoolers

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Theory of mind (ToM) is defined as the ability to recognize mental states of oneself and others while also understanding that others have different desires, beliefs, and perspectives(Wellman,2001). This ability is crucial in everyday interaction as it enables us to better fit into social contexts, get along with others, and understand the people around us. Across cultures, young children seem to face difficulty grasping mental state concepts. It is not until between ages 4 and 6, children start to reach this important milestone(Sabbagh,2006). Although executive function, parental input, and siblings have been found to be related to ToM skills, other factors underlying the development of mental state concept is unclear. The present study examines the relation between preschoolers’ bilingualism and their ToM understanding; specifically, whether the level of preschooler’s bilingualism predicts their ToM understanding among preschoolers.
There is reason to believe that bilingualism influences ToM understanding as children gets exposed to more than one language must consider other’s linguistic background and switch from one language to another(Javor,2016). Thus, bilingual children may have opportunity to reflect and recognize the importance of considering other people’s knowledge and perspectives more so than monolingual children. Currently, little is known about the impact bilingual experience has on ToM development(Barac,2011). Further, previous studies on ToM understanding have exclusively compared bilinguals to monolinguals. The present study is unique as it examines the variation within the bilingual sample.
In the present study 34 children (Mage = 47.40 months; SD = 5.36) were recruited from three preschools in the Bay Area that serve predominantly a multicultural and multilingual community. For all participating children, another language other than English was spoken to them at home (e.g., Malayalam, Korean, Pashto, Russian, Bengali, Hindi, Italian, Tamil, Tagalog, Romanian, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese). Parents were given a parental survey where they rated their child’s overall level of bilingualism (1 being not bilingual and 5 being fluent bilingual; M = 2.81; SD = 1.08). In order to measure the child’s ToM, we used the Wellman and Liu’s (2004) Theory of Mind Scale. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test v.4 (PPVT-4) was used to measure of receptive vocabulary for standard American English.
A correlation between PPVT and ToM was found to be marginally significant even with a small sample size. To be consistent with previous literature, which has shown relations between PPVT and ToM, PPVT was controlled for in the hierarchical regression analysis.
Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that children's overall level of bilingualism accounted for significant variance in the ToM performance (Beta = 0.35, t = 2.16, p = 0.02, adjusted R2 = 0.16, F(2,29) = 4.09, p = 0.03). After controlling for the child’s level of English Receptive Vocabulary, their overall level of bilingualism significantly predicted their total score on ToM tasks. The present study not only provides additional insights that level of bilingual experience may matter, but supports the positive impact bilingual experience has on preschooler’s ToM understanding.

Authors

• Marium Yusufzie, San Francisco State University
  Presenting Author

• Jae Paik, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Benjamin Safer, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jacquelyn Glidden, University of San Francisco
  Non-Presenting Author