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Promoting theory of mind during middle childhood: a training program

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 21:59 authored by Serena Lecce, Federica Bianco, Rory T Devine, Claire Hughes, Robin BanerjeeRobin Banerjee
Evidence that conversations about the mind foster improvements in theory of mind (ToM) is growing, but their efficacy in typically developing school-aged children has yet to be demonstrated. To address this gap, we designed a conversation-based training program for 9- and 10-year-olds and measured its effectiveness by pre- and post-test comparisons of performance on age-appropriate ToM tasks for two groups (matched at pre-test for gender, age, socioeconomic background, verbal ability, reading comprehension, executive functions, and ToM) who were assigned to either the intervention condition (n=45) or an active control condition (n=46). The intervention group showed significantly greater gains in ToM than the control group; this contrast was stable over 2 months, and (in a subsample) the improvement in ToM was independent of any changes in executive functions. Implications for the role of conversations about the mind in children's mental state reasoning are discussed.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

ISSN

0022-0965

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

126

Page range

52-67

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-07-31

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-07-31

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