Mind theory at preschoolers: association between age differences and nonverbal intelligence

Kornienko D. S.

Translator: Н. А. Руднова

The present study investigates differences between the components of theory of mind (ToM) in children at preschool ages and its relationship with nonverbal intelligence. During the preschool period, children make significant progress in understanding their own and other people’s thoughts, intentions, desires, or beliefs. The study aims to examine the performance of Theory of mind, between-age and within- age differences and relations between nonverbal intelligence and components of ToM.

The participants are 111 children aged 3 to 6 years old. Different types of tasks are given to the participants: understanding of deception, understanding of emotions, and intentions. Nonverbal intelligence is assessed with the Raven’s Colour Progressive Matrices test.

The results demonstrate that starting from the fourth year, the development of ToM increases considerably. The borderline in deception understanding, intension recognition and emotion comprehension is at the age of four years old. Starting from the fourth year, about a half of children understand the situation of deception but only if they take part in cheating. The associations between different components of ToM reveal that children, who understand deception better, are more likely to reach understanding with affective expressions. Nonverbal intelligence positively correlates with the components of ToM. These findings are consistent with other studies except sex differences.

Keywords: preschoolers, Theory of mind

In book

The European Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences EpSBS ECCE 2018 VII International Conference Early Childhood Care and Education

Vol. XLIII. , M.: Future Academy, 2018.