Virginia Slaughter

Whose gaze will infants follow? The elicitation of gaze following in 12-month-olds

Eighty-three 12-month-old infants faced a noisy, active, object for one minute, after which the object turned 45 degrees to the left or the right. Five conditions explored what object features elicited gaze-following behavior in the infants. In one condition, the object was an adult stranger. The other four conditions used a soft, brown, dog-sized, amorphously-shaped, asymmetrical novel object that varied along two dimensions theorized as central to the identification of intentional beings: facial features and contingently interactive behavior. Infants shifted their own attentional direction to match the orientation of the actor or object in every condition except the one in which the object lacked both a face and contingently interactive behavior. Infants’‘gaze’-following behavior in general, therefore, appears to have been driven selectively by a particular configuration of behavioral and morphological characteristics, specifically those theorized as underlying attributions of intentionality rather than attributions of person per se.

Theory of mind and peer acceptance in preschool children

Two studies tested the hypothesis that preschool childrens theory of mind ability is related to their levels of peer acceptance. In Study 1, 78 children between the ages of 4 and 6 provided peer nominations that allowed determination of social preference and social impact scores, and classification in one of five peer status groups (following Coie & Dodge, 1983). Children were also tested on five different theory of mind tasks. The results showed that theory of mind scores were significantly related to social preference scores in a subsample of children who were over 5 years old. Further, popular children were found to score higher on theory of mind tasks than children classified as rejected. Study 2 replicated and extended the first study with a new sample of 87 4- to 6-year-old children. Study 2 included measures of peer acceptance, theory of mind ability and verbal intelligence, as well as teacher ratings of prosocial and aggressive behaviours. The results of Study 2 showed that for the total group of children, prosocial behaviour was the best predictor of social preference scores. When the Study 2 sample was split into older and younger children, theory of mind ability was found to be the best predictor of social preference scores for the older children (over age 5), while aggressive and prosocial behaviours were the best predictors of peer acceptance in the younger children. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that the impact of theory of mind ability on peer acceptance is modest but increases with childrens age.

The Mind Behind the Message: Advancing Theory-of-Mind Scales for Typically Developing Children, and Those With Deafness, Autism, or Asperger Syndrome

Children aged 3-12 years (n = 184) with typical development, deafness, autism, or Asperger syndrome took a series of theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks to confirm and extend previous developmental scaling evidence. A new sarcasm task, in the format of H. M. Wellman and D. Lius (2004) 5-step ToM Scale, added a statistically reliable 6th step to the scale for all diagnostic groups. A key previous finding, divergence in task sequencing for children with autism, was confirmed. Comparisons among diagnostic groups, controlling age, and language ability, showed that typical developers mastered the 6 ToM steps ahead of each of the 3 disabled groups, with implications for ToM theories. The final (sarcasm) task challenged even nondisabled 9-year-olds, demonstrating the new scales sensitivity to post-preschool ToM growth.

Culture and the sequence of steps in Theory of Mind development

To examine cultural contrasts in the ordered sequence of conceptual developments leading to theory of mind (ToM), we compared 135 3- to 6-year-olds (77 Australians; 58 Iranians) on an established 5-step ToM scale (Wellman & Liu, 2004). There was a cross-cultural difference in the sequencing of ToM steps but not in overall rates of ToM mastery. In line with our predictions, the children from Iran conformed to a distinctive sequence previously observed only in children in China. In contrast to the case with children from Australia (and the United States), knowledge access was understood earlier than opinion diversity in children from Iran, consistent with this collectivist cultures emphasis on filial respect, dispute avoidance, and acquiring knowledge. Having a sibling was linked with faster overall ToM progress in Australia only and was not related to scale sequences in either culture.

Theory of mind and mental state discourse during book reading and story-telling tasks

This article presents three studies conducted in Canada and Australia that relate theory of mind (ToM) development to mental state discourse. In Study 1, mental state discourse was examined while parents and their 5-7-year-old children jointly read a storybook which had a surprise ending about the identity of the main character. Comments specific to the mental states of the story characters and discourse after the book had ended were positively related to childrens ToM, and this was due to parent elaborations. Studies 2 and 3 examined childrens mental state discourse during storytelling tasks, and in both, mental state discourse of children during narrative was concurrently related to ToM performance. While research has shown that mental state discourse of parents is related to childrens ToM acquisition, the current research indicates that childrens spontaneous use of mental state language examined outside of the interactional context is also a strong correlate.

Children's Understanding of Biology and Health: Constructing a coherent theory: children's biological understanding of life and death

Sophie stood on the gravel path, thinking. She tried to think extra hard about being alive so as to forget that she would not be alive forever. But it was impossible. As soon as she concentrated on being alive now, the thought of dying also came into her mind. The same thing happened the other way around: only by conjuring up an intense feeling of one day being dead could she appreciate how terribly good it was to be alive. It was like two sides of a coin that she kept turning over and over. And the bigger and clearer one side of the coin became, the bigger and clearer the other side became too. (Jostein Gaarder, Sophies World , 1995, p. 6) The concept of death is emotionally charged and cognitively challenging. Understanding that all people die, that death is the inevitable end of the life cycle of each living individual, is fundamental to our understanding of ourselves as human beings. Conceptualizing and accepting death has consequences for how we live our lives as well as for how we manage our health. For these reasons, twentieth-century psychologists of many different theoretical persuasions – Freudians, Piagetians, educators, health psychologists – have described young childrens grappling with the concept of death. These studies have documented in great detail the ways in which preschool children conceive of death differently from their elders, and the steps they take in approximating adult understanding.

Introduction individual differences in theory of mind

Introduction. V. Slaughter, B. Repacholi, Individual Differences in Theory of Mind: What Are We Investigating? J.W. Astington, Sometimes Necessary, Never Sufficient: False-belief Understanding and Social Competence. D. McIlwain, Bypassing Empathy: A Machiavellian Theory of Mind and Sneaky Power. B. Repacholi, V. Slaughter, M. Pritchard, V. Gibbs, Theory of Mind, Machiavellianism, and Social Functioning in Childhood. J. Sutton, Tom Goes to School: Social Cognition and Social Values in Bullying. T. Keenan, Individual Differences in Theory of Mind: The Preschool Years and Beyond. R.J.R. Blair, Did Cain Fail to Represent the Thoughts of Abel before He Killed Him? The Relationship between Theory of Mind and Aggression. C.C. Peterson, The Social Face of Theory of Mind: The Development of Concepts of Emotion, Desire, Visual Perspective and False Belief in Deaf and Hearing Children. H. Tager-Flusberg, Exploring the Relationships between Theory of Mind and Social-Communicative Functioning in Children with Autism. C. Dissanayake, K. Macintosh, Mind Reading and Social Functioning in Children with Autistic Disorder and Aspergers Disorder. R. Langdon, Poor Mindreading and Delusions: Psychotic Solipsism versus Autistic Asociality. P. Gerrans, V. McGeer, Theory of Mind in Autism and Schizophrenia. Synthesis. M. Davies, T. Stone, Psychological Understanding and Social Skills.

Social Behaviors Increase in Children with Autism in the Presence of Animals Compared to Toys

Background Previous research has demonstrated the capacity of animal presence to stimulate social interaction among humans. The purpose of this study was to examine the interactions of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with an adult and their typically-developing peers in the presence of animals (two guinea pigs) compared to toys. Methods Ninety-nine children from 15 classrooms in 4 schools met the inclusion criteria and participated in groups of three (1 child with ASD and 2 typically-developing peers). Each group was video-recorded during three 10-minute, free-play sessions with toys and three 10-minute, free-play sessions with two guinea pigs. Two blinded observers coded the behavior of children with ASD and their peers. To account for the nested study design, data were analyzed using hierarchical generalized linear modeling. Results Participants with ASD demonstrated more social approach behaviors (including talking, looking at faces, and making tactile contact) and received more social approaches from their peers in the presence of animals compared to toys. They also displayed more prosocial behaviors and positive affect (i.e., smiling and laughing) as well as less self-focused behaviors and negative affect (i.e., frowning, crying, and whining) in the presence of animals compared to toys. Conclusions These results suggest that the presence of an animal can significantly increase positive social behaviors among children with ASD.

Death understanding and fear of death in young children

The purpose of this study was to test whether the developmental acquisition of a mature concept of death, that is, understanding death as a biological event, affects young childrens fear of death. Ninety children between the ages of 4 and 8 participated in an interview study in which their understanding of death and their fear of death were both assessed. Levels of general anxiety were also measured via parent report. A regression analysis indicated that more mature death understanding was associated with lower levels of death fear, when age and general anxiety were controlled. These data provide some empirical support for the widely held belief that discussing death and dying in biological terms is the best way to alleviate fear of death in young children.

Perception of Faces and Bodies Similar or Different

Human faces and bodies are both complex and interesting perceptual objects, and both convey important social information. Given these similarities between faces and bodies, we can ask how similar are the visual processing mechanisms used to recognize them. It has long been argued that faces are subject to dedicated and unique perceptual processes, but until recently, relatively little research has focused on how we perceive the human body. Some recent paradigms indicate that faces and bodies are processed differently; others show similarities in face and body perception. These similarities and differences depend on the type of perceptual task and the level of processing involved. Future research should take these issues into account.