Relations between Executive Functions, Theory of Mind, and Functional Outcomes in Middle Childhood

Wilson, J. Kevin; Hogan, Christy; Wang, Si; Andrews, Glenda; Shum, David

doi:10.1080/87565641.2021.1988086

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…It should be noted that the Strange Stories task was used only for assessing older children (approximately 6 -17 years old). Significant correlations were detected between the Strange Stories total score and WM, IC cool and ho t, and SH (ages 6-12 years) (Austin et al, 2014;Bock et al, 2015;Wilson et al, 2021). Performance in the Strange Stories task was also found to be predicted by IC and SH in adolescence (ages 13-18 years) (Gabriel et al, 2019) and also by WM (ages 6-18 years old) (Cantin et al, 2016;Gabriel et al, 2019).…”

Section: Tom Scales and Efsmentioning

confidence: 82%

The relationship between Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning in typically developing children: A systematic review

Economacou,

Karousou,

Makris

2023

Psychology

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The development of Theory of Mind (ToM) constitutes a central topic in the study of human cognitive development. During the last decades, researchers representing different theoretical approaches have been trying to explore the emergence and development of mental state understanding and the potential contribution of other complex cognitive mechanisms in this developmental process. The relationship between ToM and Executive Functions (EFs) has been assessed in the context of various experimental designs. Despite the significant number of existing studies and the variety of relevant theories proposed, there is still no agreement about the exact nature of the ToM-EFs relationship. The main aim of this paper is to review relevant research results on typically developing children. It attempts to disentangle the factors that can potentially explain the contradictory findings reported in the literature. The results, overall, support the ToM-EFs relationship and suggest EFs’ important role in ToM development. However, the exact nature of this relationship seems obscured by the diversity of approaches, operationalization of the theoretical constructs, methods and ages included in the studies. It is, therefore, suggested that for building a unified picture and an explanatory account of the dynamic developmental relationship between these two complex theoretical constructs, a refinement in the conceptual definitions and methodological approaches is crucial.

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Section: Tom Scales and Efsmentioning

confidence: 82%

The relationship between Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning in typically developing children: A systematic review

Economacou,

Karousou,

Makris

2023

Psychology

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“…In line with this, Lecce et al (2021) found associations between ToM and reading comprehension in older (9‐year‐old) children. However, other studies indicate that ToM is also related to basic reading skills, like word reading (e.g., Wilson et al, 2021) or letter knowledge (Blair & Razza, 2007). In our sample, at 5 years of age, only a minority of children understood second‐order FBs, whereas the majority performed well on first‐order FB tasks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The impact of theory of mind and executive function on math and reading abilities: A longitudinal study

Kloo

Osterhaus

Kristen

et al. 2022

Infant and Child Development

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Both theory of mind (ToM) and executive functioning have been related to children's academic abilities. In a longitudinal study with 112 children, we investigated the influence of these two abilities on children's math and reading performance at 7 years of age. We found that math performance was predicted by concurrent working memory as well as by preschool numerical abilities and ToM. Reading performance was predicted by concurrent working memory and verbal IQ at 6 years. This corroborates earlier research demonstrating the importance of executive functioning (working memory) and ToM for later academic abilities. We argue that ToM may be an important developmental precursor of math performance because both require an understanding of representations.

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“…To measure familial SES, each parent's highest educational qualification was converted into scores ranging from 1 to 9 with no formal schooling (a), primary (b), secondary (c), post-secondary general and vocational (i.e., for technical professions), (d), polytechnic diploma (i.e., a 3 years course program that enable students to join the workforce or apply for university) (e), professional qualification and other diploma (f), bachelor's degree or equivalent (g), postgraduate diploma or certificate (h), master's and doctorate or equivalent (i). Given that the development of EF and language skills may influence children's social abilities (Wilson et al, 2021) we measured and analysed participants' performance in the forward digit span task from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (Wechsler, 2003), and in the Letter-Word Identification and Passage Comprehension tasks from the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement (McGrew et al, 2014;Schrank et al, 2014). A composite reading ability score was calculated from the W-scores of both tasks according to the test's guidelines (McGrew et al, 2014), such that higher scores indicated better reading ability.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of socioeconomic status and appearance‐reality understanding on pre‐schoolers' sharing and generosity

Hashim

Fischer

Kim

et al. 2023

British J of Dev Psycho

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Prosocial behaviour can be defined as any voluntary action that is performed to benefit another individual. Despite accumulating evidence of the importance of environmental variables (e.g., socioeconomic status; SES), and individual characteristics (e.g., theory of mind – ToM – skills), in influencing prosocial behaviours in young children, it is unknown how these factors relate to the underlying motivations for prosocial behaviours. Accordingly, both extrinsically (sharing) and intrinsically (generosity)‐guided prosocial behaviours are measured in this study. We explore the influences of SES and ToM skills on young children's sharing behaviour and generosity, while controlling their age, working memory and language skills. Sixty‐six 4‐ to 6 year olds (Mage = 5.24 years, SD = 0.73) from diverse SES (measured by parental education level) and ethnic backgrounds in Singapore completed tasks assessing the ToM measures of false belief and appearance‐reality understanding, working memory, language skills, generosity, and sharing behaviour. The results of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate that the father's education level and children's appearance‐reality understanding were significant predictors of sharing, after controlling for age, working memory, language skills, and the mother's education level. Children's appearance‐reality understanding was the sole predictor of children's generosity. Our findings highlight the impact of children's ability to hold different views of reality and their family's education levels on the development of sharing and generosity in early childhood.

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Relations between Executive Functions, Theory of Mind, and Functional Outcomes in Middle Childhood

Cited by 13 publications

References 51 publications

The relationship between Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning in typically developing children: A systematic review

The relationship between Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning in typically developing children: A systematic review

The impact of theory of mind and executive function on math and reading abilities: A longitudinal study

The influence of socioeconomic status and appearance‐reality understanding on pre‐schoolers' sharing and generosity

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