Publications

Publication details [#5815]

Maring, Bayta L. 2003. The metaphorical bases of children's developing theories of mind. Eugene, Oreg.. 192 pp.

Abstract

This research examined the extent to which children's understanding of metaphors for the mind relates to their developing theories of mind. Specifically, comprehension of two types of metaphors were examined: Mind as Container (e.g., "I put it out of my mind.") and Mind as Homunculus (e.g., "My mind wandered"). It was proposed that children's conceptualization of the mind as a container is related to their grasp of false beliefs, an important theory of mind milestone that children reach during the pre-school years. It was also proposed that children's understanding of how the actions of the mind are like those of a person is linked to later theory of mind development. One purpose of the initial study was to develop a metaphor comprehension task appropriate for use with children younger than 6. With the new task, the 26 5-year-old participants in Study 1 performed above chance when interpreting Mind as Container metaphors, t (25) = 5.41, p < .001 and some Mind as Homunculus metaphors, t (25) = 2.60, p < .05. These children also understood Mind as Container better than Mind as Homunculus metaphors, F (1,25) = 5.54, p < .01. The primary purpose of Study 2 was to investigate the relationship between children's understanding of Mind as Container metaphors and their performance on false belief tasks. The results from 80 4- and 5-year-olds showed a significant positive correlation between these two variables, after controlling for age, verbal ability, and analogical reasoning, r (63) = .28, p < .05. In Study 3, this relationship was examined experimentally. Over the course of several weeks, children were trained on either Mind as Container metaphors, false belief tasks, or a control task (analogical reasoning). The results indicated that the metaphor training improved children's understanding of Mind as Container metaphors, t (9) = -2.71, p < .05. It also improved performance on a sub-set of false belief tasks significantly more than the control training, F (1, 26) = 7.39, p < .05. The results of this research support the idea that a conceptual Mind as Container metaphor plays a role in children's understanding of false beliefs. (Bayta Maring)