Much of the evidence from the West has shown links between children's developing self-control (executive function), their social experiences, and their social understanding (Carpendale & Lewis, 2006, chapters 5 and 6), across a range of cultures including China. This chapter describes four studies conducted in three Oriental cultures, suggesting that the relationships among social interaction, executive function, and social understanding are different in these cultures, implying that social and executive skills are underpinned by key cultural processes.

Findings from cross-cultural theory-of-mind studies highlight potential measurement effects and both general (e.g., East-West) and specific (e.g., pedagogical experiences) cultural contrasts. We compared theory-of-mind scores for children from UK and Italy (two Western countries that differ in age of school entry) and Japan (a Far-Eastern country in which children, like their Italian counterparts, start school later than British children). Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to data from 268 age-gender-and verbal ability-matched 5-to 6-year olds. Key findings were that (i) all 8 indicators loaded onto a single latent factor; and (ii) this latent factor explained significant variance in each group, with just one indicator showing differential item functioning. Supporting the importance of pedagogical experiences, British children outperformed both their Italian and Japanese counterparts.

The participants were 120 UK and 120 Japanese children. There were two age groups (7‐year‐olds and 11‐year‐olds) with equal numbers of boys and girls in each. Each child drew three figures: a man standing and facing the viewer, a man running towards the right, and a man running towards the viewer. The older children's figures were rated more highly than those of younger children, supporting previous research findings. Girls' figures received higher ratings than those of boys, contradicting previous claims that boys are more flexible in their drawings of figures in action. Japanese children's figures received higher ratings than those in the UK, suggesting that Japanese children are influenced by a greater exposure to graphic images in their school art curriculum and the widespread popularity of manga comics. The prediction that Japanese boys would make the greatest adaptations to their figures (since manga comics for boys contain more action figures) was not supported. As well as gaining higher ratings, the older children also constructed their figures in more complex ways than did the younger children. The figures drawn by girls and by the Japanese children were not constructed differently from those of boys or UK children; their higher ratings were attributed to their greater facility in the execution of their constructions.

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