At the emergence of theory of mind: novel paradigms for mental states language and false belief reasoning

Grosso, Stella Serena (2023): At the emergence of theory of mind: novel paradigms for mental states language and false belief reasoning. Dissertation, LMU München: Fakultät für Psychologie und Pädagogik

Abstract

Theory of Mind refers to the cognitive ability of reasoning over others’ points of views, goals, desires, and, ultimately, understanding and inferring their mental states. Recent research in neuropsychology challenged the assumption that Theory of Mind develops only after the fourth year of age, supporting the alternative claim that positive performance in younger population is possible, but it is concealed due to the high cognitive requirements caused by classic paradigms. It is hence necessary to reconsider and revisit traditional Theory of Mind tasks by application of suitable methodologies that can reduce cognitive load. The primary aim of this project is to confirm the robustness of this claim and to accordingly develop novel paradigms with reduced working memory load and inhibitory control demands, in order to tackle two cognitive mechanisms connected to the development of Theory of Mind: understanding of false belief and comprehension of mental states language. To achieve this goal, three experimental studies have been implemented here. In the first study, a replication of a behavioural explicit false belief task with a larger sample of 33-month-old children was performed. The replication of this explicit task, characterised by low inhibitory requirements, served as theoretical basis for the development of the following paradigms. We successfully replicated the original findings, showing significant high performance in explicit false belief in 3-year-old children when inhibitory demands are reduced. Secondly, implicit false belief understanding was investigated in an adult sample with a novel EEG paradigm with reduced processing demands. Neural ERP correlates of implicit false belief discrimination were evoked at distinct latencies. This indicates the novel task effectiveness in detecting false belief reasoning, even when belief-related inferential demands are removed. Thirdly, an eye-tracking task to explore spontaneous correlates of early comprehension of mental states verbs was developed and validated with a representative sample of 27-month-old children. Analysis of proportional looking time indicated an early sensitivity to epistemic language discrimination already in 2.5-year-old children, with a stunning preference for the novel verb think vs. the familiar verb know. Taken all together, this project supports the conceptual continuity hypothesis, which states that false belief discrimination capacities are already present before the fourth year of age, but are obscured by competing executive demands. Furthermore, the development towards a full-fledged Theory of Mind could be facilitated by early mental states comprehension already in the third year of life. This opens the path to future investigations, which can apply these paradigms in longitudinal studies to explore developmental patterns. As a final point, this works confirms the necessity of cross-disciplinary methodologies to be employed synergistically in infant research to investigate effectively the mechanisms behind the emergence of Theory of Mind.

• Dokumententyp: Dissertationen (Dissertation, LMU München)
• Keywords: Theory of Mind, false belief, ERP, mental states language, eye-tracking, cognitive processing, executive functions, inhibitory control, replication
• Themengebiete: 100 Philosophie und Psychologie ; 100 Philosophie und Psychologie > 150 Psychologie
• Fakultäten: Fakultät für Psychologie und Pädagogik
• Sprache der Hochschulschrift: Englisch
• Datum der mündlichen Prüfung: 23. März 2023
• 1. Bericht­erstatter:in: Sauseng, Paul