Development of second-order theory of mind: Assessment of environmental influences using a dynamic system approach

Abstract

Theory of mind refers to the ability to attribute beliefs to oneself and others. The present study used a dynamic systems approach to assess how environment may affect the development of second-order theory of mind (e.g., “John knows that Mary knows that he went out yesterday”). Theory of mind is divided into two major dimensions: comprehension (i.e., to understand a mental state) and prediction (i.e., to predict someone else’s future behavior or mental state). Two age groups were assessed: 5–6- and 10–11-year-old children. In both age groups, participants were assigned to a condition of “support” (help provided) or “no support” (help not provided). Results show that second-order theory of mind follows a dynamic growth law that depends on support. Support facilitates performance in theory of mind production (i.e., to predict one’s future behavior) for both the 5–6- and 10–11-year-old children. Interestingly, the 5–6-year-olds who received support presented an increase in the second-order prediction performance at the expense of the second-order comprehension, suggesting that a temporary dip in comprehension performance may facilitate the development of mental rules to predict one’s future behavior.

Autism and Religion

“…Children with ASD show milder impairments in relationship recognition or understanding the animate-inanimate distinction [ 44 , 80 , 81 , 82 ]. Some higher-functioning children with ASD do develop a first-order ToM (the ability to attribute beliefs to others) but struggle with the second-order theory of mind (the ability to attribute beliefs about beliefs), although it depends on task complexity [ 83 , 84 ]. Interventions targeting ToM development by teaching children with ASD to recognize emotions, understand different perspectives, and engage in pretend play somewhat improved social and communication skills, although the results are not straightforward [ 84 , 85 , 86 ].…”

Escala de desarrollo armónico (EDA): Una propuesta para la evaluación clínica del desarrollo infantil desde la Teoría de Sistemas

“…Modulación del ritmo del sistema nervioso central -maduración lateral y mielinización- (Buss & Spencer, 2014;Gago-Galvagno, y otros, 2019;Ryali, y otros, 2016;Simmering, 2016), 7 y 8. Expresión y Comprensión comunicativa -empatía, lenguaje- (Papera, Richards, Van Geert, & Valentini, 2019;Samuelson, Kucker, & Spencer, 2017), 9. Desarrollo de la Identidad y autonomía personal (Cole, Bendezú, Ram, & Chow, 2017; Fausto-Sterling, 2019) y 10.…”