Cognitive and affective Theory of Mind in adolescence: developmental aspects and associated neuropsychological variables

Abstract

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to represent and attribute mental states to oneself and others. So far, research regarding ToM processing across adolescence is scarce. Existing studies either yield inconsistent results or did not or not thoroughly investigate aspects like higher order ToM and associated neuropsychological variables which the current study tried to address. 643 typically developing early, middle, and late adolescents (age groups 13-14; 15-16; 17-18) performed cognitive and affective ToM tasks as well as neuropsychological tasks tapping the cognitive or affective domain. Regarding both ToM types, 15-to 16-year-olds and 17-to 18-year-olds outperformed 13-to 14-year-olds, whereas females were superior regarding cognitive ToM. Across adolescence, cognitive and affective ToM correlated with attention and affective intelligence, whereas working memory, language comprehension, and figural intelligence additionally correlated with cognitive ToM. In early adolescence, attention correlated with both ToM types, whereas cognitive ToM further correlated with language comprehension and affective ToM with verbal intelligence, verbal fluency, and verbal flexibility. In middle and late adolescence, affective intelligence correlated with both ToM types, whereas cognitive ToM additionally correlated with working memory, language comprehension, and figural intelligence. The current study shows a developmental step regarding cognitive and affective ToM in middle adolescence as well as gender differences in cognitive ToM processing. Associations between neuropsychological variables and ToM processing were shown across adolescence and within age groups. Results give new insights into social cognition in adolescence and are well supported by neuroscientific and neurobiological studies regarding ToM and the integration of cognitive and affective processes.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Basic and Higher Order Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind Processing in Emerging and Early Adulthood—An Explorative Event-Related Potentials Study to Investigate First-, Second-, and Third-Order Theory of Mind Processing Based on Visual Cues

“…Since the position of the protagonists on the last slide of each trial in combination with their eye gazes is essential to deduce their respective thoughts and beliefs, an association with this previously discovered posterior slow wave seems reasonable. Supporting this notion, previous studies indicated an association between visual-spatial mentalization/visual perspective taking and ToM processing (e.g., Gabriel et al, 2019) and shared neuronal activation regarding these abilities as for example in the left TPJ, the PCC, and the precuneus (Schurz et al, 2013).…”

Measuring advanced theory of mind: Do story‐based tasks work?

“…Changes in social processes (including social cognition) may also be influenced (directly and indirectly, through brain development) by puberty‐related factors (Pfeifer & Allen, 2021), with changing impact from early through middle to late adolescence. Coherently, there is also evidence for the age‐related differences in advanced ToM, as measured with story‐based tasks, between early and middle adolescence (Gabriel et al, 2021).…”

The Heart in the Mind: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Theory of Mind and Cardiac Vagal Tone

“…In contrast, sex differences in ToM appear controversial. While in some studies males and females had the same performance on ToM tasks (Di Tella et al, 2020), in other studies females had better performance compared with males during preschool and elementary school years (Charman et al, 2002;Walker, 2005;Calero et al, 2013), adolescence (Gabriel et al, 2021), and adulthood (Wacker et al, 2017).…”