The power of feedback.

Research on theory of mind increasingly encompasses apparently contradictory findings. In particular, in initial studies, older preschoolers consistently passed false-belief tasks—a so-called “definitive” test of mentalstate understanding—whereas younger children systematically erred. More recent studies, however, have found evidence of false-belief understanding in 3-year-olds or have demonstrated conditions that improve children’s performance. A meta-analysis was conducted ( N � 178 separate studies) to address the empirical inconsistencies and theoretical controversies. When organized into a systematic set of factors that vary across studies, false-belief results cluster systematically with the exception of only a few outliers. A combined model that included age, country of origin, and four task factors (e.g., whether the task objects were transformed in order to deceive the protagonist or not) yielded a multiple R of .74 and an R 2 of .55; thus, the model accounts for 55% of the variance in false-belief performance. Moreover, false-belief performance showed a consistent developmental pattern, even across various countries and various task manipulations: preschoolers went from below-chance performance to above-chance performance. The findings are inconsistent with early competence proposals that claim that developmental changes are due to tasks artifacts, and thus disappear in simpler, revised false-belief tasks; and are, instead, consistent with theoretical accounts that propose that understanding of belief, and, relatedly, understanding of mind, exhibit genuine conceptual change in the preschool years.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1132444.pdf

Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief.

In this paper, we consider the domain of executive functions (EFs) and their possible role in developmental psychopathologies. We first consider general theoretical and measurement issues involved in studying EFs and then review studies of EFs in four developmental psychopathologies: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), autism, and Tourette syndrome (TS). Our review reveals that EF deficits are consistently found in both ADHD and autism but not in CD (without ADHD) or in TS. Moreover, both the severity and profile of EF deficits appears to differ across ADHD and autism. Molar EF deficits are more severe in the latter than the former. In the few studies of more specific EF tasks, there are impairments in motor inhibition in ADHD but not in autism, whereas there are impairments in verbal working memory in autism but not ADHD. We close with a discussion of implications for future research.

Executive Functions and Developmental Psychopathology

This study examined the role of self-regulation in emerging academic ability in one hundred and forty-one 3- to 5-year-old children from low-income homes. Measures of effortful control, false belief understanding, and the inhibitory control and attention-shifting aspects of executive function in preschool were related to measures of math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Results indicated that the various aspects of child self-regulation accounted for unique variance in the academic outcomes independent of general intelligence and that the inhibitory control aspect of executive function was a prominent correlate of both early math and reading ability. Findings suggest that curricula designed to improve self-regulation skills as well as enhance early academic abilities may be most effective in helping children succeed in school.

/pdf/relating-effortful-control-executive-function-and-false-o47zlfcgog.pdf

Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten

A connectionist approach to processing in quasi-regular domains, as exemplified by English word reading, is developed. Networks using appropriately structured orthographic and phonological representations were trained to read both regular and exception words, and yet were also able to read pronounceable nonwords as well as skilled readers. A mathematical analysis of a simplified system clarifies the close relationship of word frequency and spelling-sound consistency in influencing naming latencies. These insights were verified in subsequent simulations, including an attractor network that accounted for latency data directly in its time to settle on a response. Further analyses of the ability of networks to reproduce data on acquired surface dyslexia support a view of the reading system that incorporates a graded division of labor between semantic and phonological processes, and contrasts in important ways with the standard dual-route account.

/pdf/understanding-normal-and-impaired-word-reading-computational-2q0o66tf09.pdf

Understanding normal and impaired word reading: computational principles in quasi-regular domains.

Evidence for executive dysfunction in autism.

Fifty preschool children (mean age 3:11 years) took part in an investigation of the relations between children's executive function performance, their understanding of mind and their language skills The study demonstrates the feasibility of testing rudimentary executive function skills among preschoolers, using an original battery of tasks The results were consistent with those from studies of older children (eg Welsh, Pennington & Groisser, 1991), in that three aspects of executive function were distinguished: working memory, attentional flexibility and inhibitory control In addition, specific links were found between executive function and theory-of-mind performance, even when age and both verbal and non-verbal ability were taken into account In particular, children's deceptive abilities were closely related to success on tests of inhibitory control The implications of these results for our understanding of deceit are discussed

Executive function in preschoolers: Links with theory of mind and verbal ability

Executive Function Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Examining Profiles across Domains and Ages.

Developmental changes in children's understanding of mind and emotion and their mental-state talk in conversations with friends were examined in a longitudinal study of 50 children (M age at each time point = 3 years 11 months, 4 years 6 months, 5 years 0 months). Significant and related improvements over time were found for both theory-of-mind task performance and affective perspective taking. Associated with these cognitive developments were quantitative and qualitative changes in children's references to mental states in their conversations with friends. Individual differences in theory of mind, emotion understanding, and mental-state talk were strikingly stable over the 13-month period. Although there were no gender differences in children's task performances, girls showed more frequent and more developed mental-state talk than boys.

Understanding mind and emotion : Longitudinal associations with mental-state talk between young friends

Experiment 1 demonstrated that autistic Ss continue to fail a task originally designed as one of strategic deception when there is no opponent present: They perseveratively indicate the target object. We argue that this behavior is better explained in terms of failing to disengage from an object than in terms of a theory-of-mind deficit. To ensure that their difficulties were not due to failure to construe the task in a competitive manner, we ran a 2nd study, on detour reaching. Compared with control Ss, the autistic Ss had great difficulty with the task. We discuss autistic children's difficulties with these 2 tasks in the light of recent evidence that autism is associated with failing executive tasks and argue that viewing the syndrome as an executive deficit has clear advantages

Claire Hughes

Papers

Evidence for executive dysfunction in autism.

Executive function in preschoolers: Links with theory of mind and verbal ability

Executive Function Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Examining Profiles across Domains and Ages.

Understanding mind and emotion : Longitudinal associations with mental-state talk between young friends

Autistic children's difficulty with mental disengagement from an object: Its implications for theories of autism.