MOTHER-CHILD PARTICIPATION IN CONVERSATION ABOUT THE PAST - RELATIONSHIPS TO PRESCHOOLERS THEORY OF MIND

Authors
Citation
Mk. Welchross, MOTHER-CHILD PARTICIPATION IN CONVERSATION ABOUT THE PAST - RELATIONSHIPS TO PRESCHOOLERS THEORY OF MIND, Developmental psychology, 33(4), 1997, pp. 618-629
Citations number
72
Categorie Soggetti
Psychology, Developmental
Journal title
ISSN journal
00121649
Volume
33
Issue
4
Year of publication
1997
Pages
618 - 629
Database
ISI
SICI code
0012-1649(1997)33:4<618:MPICAT>2.0.ZU;2-M
Abstract
Forty 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds discussed 3 past events with their mothers and completed a set of theory of mind tasks indexing their ability to reason about conflicting mental representations and their understandi ng of knowledge. Semipartial correlations and analyses of covariance s howed that children's theory of mind scores were related to their part icipation in memory conversations, independent of age and linguistic s kill. The frequency with which mothers provided new information was re lated to children's theory of mind scores, although mothers' direct re plies to children were generally unrelated to children's understanding of mind. This research takes an important step toward examining the r elevance of theory of mind skills to real-world, social interaction. T he results have implications for explaining the emergence of autobiogr aphical memory.