Biological motion perception links diverse facets of theory of mind during middle childhood

Rice, Katherine; Anderson, Laura; Velnoskey, Kayla; Thompson, James C.; Redcay, Elizabeth

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.003

Cited by 30 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The current findings dovetail well with the notion that there is a strong link between BM processing and ToM. To date, three studies have demonstrated such an association, all of which tapped into visual perception of BM by using PLDs of BM (Miller & Saygin, ; Phillips et al., ; Rice, Anderson, Velnoskey, Thompson, & Redcay, ). Moreover, two of them focused on adults and examined the association of BM perception with a key aspect of ToM (false belief reasoning or face‐based ToM).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Moreover, unlike Rice et al. (), we examined this topic among children aged 3–5 years, which is a key period for the development of ToM and hence helps us in understanding the dynamics of the BM–ToM association (see Figure ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, two of them focused on adults and examined the association of BM perception with a key aspect of ToM (false belief reasoning or face-based ToM). Only Rice et al (2015) explored this relation in middle childhood (roughly 7-12 years of age), and showed that BM perception was significantly correlated with two measures of ToM: face-based ToM (i.e., making mental state inferences from photographs of the eye region) and story-based ToM (i.e., making mental state inferences based on verbal stories). However, the ability to employ ToM by nature requires intact WM, which is necessary for holding and manipulating information for ongoing tasks.…”

Section: Implications For Tommentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Development of Social Working Memory in Preschoolers and Its Relation to Theory of Mind

Guo

Zhai

et al. 2018

Child Development

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Social working memory (WM) has distinct neural substrates from canonical cognitive WM (e.g., color). However, no study, to the best of our knowledge, has yet explored how social WM develops. The current study explored the development of social WM capacity and its relation to theory of mind (ToM). Experiment 1 had sixty-four 3- to 6-year-olds memorize 1-5 biological motion stimuli, the processing of which is considered a hallmark of social cognition. The social WM capacity steadily increased between 3- and 6-year-olds, with the increase between 4 and 5 years being sharp. Furthermore, social WM capacity positively predicted preschoolers' ToM scores, while nonsocial WM capacity did not; this positive correlation was particularly strong among 4-year-olds (Experiment 2, N = 144).

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications For Tommentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Development of Social Working Memory in Preschoolers and Its Relation to Theory of Mind

Guo

Zhai

et al. 2018

Child Development

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“…More importantly, this study, for the first time, confirmed the positive correlation between interactive BM perception and social competence, especially in older children aged 5–6 years. Although previous studies have found that children's monadic BM processing was related to their social cognitive abilities (He et al, 2018; Rice et al, ) and social competence (Endedijk et al, ; Kirby et al, ; Krogh‐Jespersen et al, ), the current results highlight the potential relation of social interaction perception on children's social development. The finding is consistent with a previous study in which the understanding of interactive actions positively predicted empathizing ability in school‐aged children (Ghanouni et al, ).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 67%

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that intention inference (e.g., theory of mind, emotion understanding), which rapidly develops during preschool stage, has immense value for young children's effective social adaptation (Denham et al, ; Devine, White, Ensor, & Hughes, ; Peterson & Siegal, ; Slaughter, Dennis, & Pritchard, ). Relevant developmental research focused on action perception involved in monadic PLD BM or real‐world contexts has found that better perception of human BM predicts higher social cognitive ability (e.g., theory of mind; Burnside, Wright, & Poulin‐Dubois, ; He et al, ; Rice, Anderson, Velnoskey, Thompson, & Redcay, ) and superior social competence (e.g., larger social network, better peer cooperation; Endedijk, Meyer, Bekkering, Cillessen, & Hunnius, ; Kirby, Moraczewski, Warnell, Velnoskey, & Redcay, ; Krogh‐Jespersen, Liberman, & Woodward, ). However, despite the ability to perceive the actions of others, precisely interpreting underlying shared intentions and interpersonal relationships in peer interactions may be more important if a child wants to have effective social interactions and to be well accepted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of interactive biological motion perception in preschoolers and its relation to social competence

Zhai

Gao

et al. 2019

Social Development

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The perception of interactive biological motion (BM) plays an important role in social life. Such social perception enables people to understand the underlying social intentions and social relationships in interactive actions, so that they can anticipate the behavior response in an appropriate manner. Although interaction perception has been widely explored in adults, little is known about preschoolers' developmental trajectory of interaction perception and its further impact on social development. This study explored the development of interaction perception in a dyadic BM situation and its relation to teachers' report of social competence among 3–6‐year olds (N = 119). Children were asked to watch videos of dyadic BM and decide whether two characters were interacting or not. The results suggested that the sensitivity of BM perception continues to develop during the entire preschool age period and is positively associated with children's social competence among children aged 5–6, even after controlling for age and language ability. However, for younger children aged 3–4, language ability rather than perception of social interaction positively correlated with their social competence. Our findings review the rapid development of interactive BM perception in early childhood and highlight the important role of interaction perception in preschoolers’ social development.

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Social motivation and implicit theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder

2017

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According to the social motivation theory of autism, children who develop Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have early deficits in social motivation, which is expressed by decreased attention to social information. These deficits are said to lead to impaired socio-cognitive development, such as theory of mind (ToM). There is little research focused on the relation between social motivation and ToM in this population. The goal of the present study was to investigate the link between one aspect of social motivation, social orienting, and ToM in preschoolers with ASD. It was expected that, in contrast to typically developing (TD) children, children with ASD would show impaired performance on tasks measuring social orienting and ToM. It was also expected that children’s performance on the social orienting tasks would be correlated with their performance on the ToM task. A total of 17 children with ASD and 16 TD children participated in this study. Participants completed two social orienting tasks, a face preference task and a biological motion preference task, as well an implicit false belief task. Results reveal that TD children, but not children with ASD, exhibited social preference as measured by a preference for faces and biological motion. Furthermore, children with ASD tended to perform worse on the ToM task compared to their TD counterparts. Performance on the social motivation tasks and the ToM task tended to be related but only for the TD children. These findings suggest that ToM is multifaceted and that motivational deficits might have downstream effects even on implicit theory of mind.

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Biological motion perception links diverse facets of theory of mind during middle childhood

Cited by 30 publications

References 30 publications

Development of Social Working Memory in Preschoolers and Its Relation to Theory of Mind

Development of Social Working Memory in Preschoolers and Its Relation to Theory of Mind

Development of interactive biological motion perception in preschoolers and its relation to social competence

Social motivation and implicit theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder

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