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Part of
Social Environment and Cognition in Language Development: Studies in honor of Ayhan Aksu-Koç
Edited by F. Nihan Ketrez, Aylin C. Küntay, Şeyda Özçalışkan and Aslı Özyürek
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 21] 2017
► pp. 151–166

Chapter 10
Narrativity and mindreading revisited

Children’s understanding of theory of mind in a storybook and in standard false belief tasks

| Lehigh University, USA
| Lehigh University, USA
This chapter reports on a study that compared young children’s understanding of false belief (FB) in picture-book stories and in standard FB tasks. Participants were 48 English-speaking American children from low-income backgrounds (ages 4, 5, and 6). Each child was read a commercially available storybook and asked a series of literal and inferential questions. Two FB tasks from a standard theory of mind (ToM) scale were also administered. Children’s FB understanding increased from ages 4–6 in both contexts, but the patterns of results were complex and distinct. Complementing standard FB tasks with systematic examination of children’s understanding and use of FBs embedded in narrative contexts can strengthen and enrich our own understanding of ToM and its development.
Keywords: theory of mind, false belief, narrative, bookreading, false belief tasks, embedded contexts, low-income preschoolers
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Children’s picture books and ToM concepts: Some orienting questions
    • 1.2Two previous studies
    • 1.3Understanding FB in picture-book stories and in standard FB tasks: Similarities and differences
    • 1.4The current study
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Procedure and materials
      • 2.2.1Picture book
      • 2.2.2FB tasks
        • 2.2.2.1Content FB task
        • 2.2.2.2Location FB task
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Children’s storybook understanding
    • 3.2Children’s FB understanding in picture-book stories and in standard FB tasks
    • 3.3Some comparisons and implications
    • 3.4Can FB questions during interactive bookreading also help promote ToM development?
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • References
Published online: 18 July 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.21.10nic
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