This study aimed to explore the underlying basis of the communication difficulties in children (between 5.0 and 7.11 years) with high functioning pervasive developmental disorder (HFPDD) (n=26), compared to children with specific language impairment (SLI) (n=26), and children with no history of developmental difficulty (NDD) (n=26). The study looked at: whether different profiles could be obtained for the groups on comprehensive batteries of communication, cognitive processing and theory of mind; which areas measured were best correlated; and which measures best differentiated the groups. Comprehensive communication and theory of mind batteries were devised and conducted. Cognitive processing was measured using the Cognitive Assessment System (CAS) (Naglieri and Das, 1997). Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Bonferroni t tests, frequency distributions, Pearson correlation coefficients and discriminant function analyses. Kappa coefficients and analysis of variance measures were carried out on 23% of the rated data in order to establish inter-rater agreement and acceptable levels of agreement were reached. On the communication assessment, the HFPDD group experienced the most difficulty on the measures of understanding abstract vocabulary, understanding conversation, pronoun alternation, higher level semantics, narrative ability and pragmatic ability. In contrast, the SLI group experienced the most difficulty on the measures of expressive grammar and narrative clarity. On the cognitive processing assessment, the HFPDD group experienced marked difficulty in the areas of planning and attention, while the SLI group experienced significant difficulty in the areas of successive processing and less marked but still significant difficulty in the area of planning. Within the HFPDD group, a group with simultaneous processing markedly stronger than successive processing, a group with successive processing markedly stronger than simultaneous processing, and a group with simultaneous and successive processing occurring at a similar level, were identified. The HFPDD group experienced significant difficulty on all the measures of theory of mind, although a limited number of HFPDD subjects did not experience difficulty. The SLI group experienced significant difficulty on the two theory of mind measures that were more verbally loaded. Strong correlations were found between receptive language, expressive semantics, narrative ability, pragmatic ability, planning, attention and theory of mind; and between expressive grammar and successive processing. Pragmatic ability, narrative ability, planning, and certain of the theory of mind measures best appeared to discriminate the groups. A combined model of language, cognitive and theory of mind processing is proposed to explain the differences between the HFPDD and SLI groups.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-12-14T11:43:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Caroline Campos Rodrigues da Silva.pdf: 669146 bytes, checksum: 0a3431282bf9917df655117ba62cb734 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-14T11:43:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Caroline Campos Rodrigues da Silva.pdf: 669146 bytes, checksum: 0a3431282bf9917df655117ba62cb734 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-11-26 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The ability to infer what other people think and to identify the intentionality of actions is defined as theory of mind, which is a useful cognitive ability to the adaptation within the social world, since it is proper from the human being to regulate a considerable part of their actions based on the knowledge about the intentions of others This study aims to review articles about the emergence and development of the theory of mind in infants. The search was was conducted in Science Direct, Scielo and PsycNet, obtained 399 results, which 46 articles were analyzed regarding to the development of theory of mind before expressive language. The analysis led to five thematic categories: (a) theoretical articles about the development and emergence of theory of mind; (b) articles regarding the development of false belief; (c) implications of the kind of parental care to the development of theory of mind; (d) studies about intentional communication and (e) studies about the comprehension of mental states. It was possible to ascertain that a great part of these researches were about children between 13 and 18 months. The results also suggest lack of consensus among researchers regarding to the moment when the theory of mind emerges or when it actually becomes a theory / A habilidade de inferir o que outras pessoas estão pensando e identificar a intencionalidade de ações é denominada teoria da mente, uma habilidade cognitiva útil para adaptação ao mundo social uma vez que é próprio do ser humano regular uma parte considerável de suas ações tendo como base os conhecimentos adquiridos acerca das intenções dos outros. Foi objetivo desta pesquisa realizar uma revisão de literatura a respeito da emergência e do desenvolvimento da teoria da mente em bebês. A busca foi realizada nas bases Science Direct, Scielo e PsycNet e obteve 399 resultados, dos quais foram analisados 46 artigos referentes ao desenvolvimento da teoria da mente antes da linguagem expressiva. A análise levou à formação de cinco categorias temáticas: (a) artigos teóricos sobre o desenvolvimento e emergência da teoria da mente; (b) artigos a respeito do desenvolvimento da crença falsa; (c) implicações do tipo de cuidado parental no desenvolvimento da teoria da mente; (d) estudos sobre comunicação intencional e (e) estudos sobre compreensão de estados mentais. Foi possível verificar que grande parte dessas pesquisas foram realizadas com crianças entre 13 e 18 meses. Observou-se, também, ausência de consenso entre os pesquisadores a respeito de qual momento a teoria de mente emerge ou quando ela se torna, de fato, uma teoria

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eliana Cristina Gallo Penna.pdf: 1169714 bytes, checksum: e8422e015d7aa978fbf384302d1e2d44 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The manifestation of the Theory of Mind in autism is a singular issue, emphasized by the hypothesis that there are deficits in the ability of attributing mental states in autistic children, related to autism specific symptoms. This research is an experimental intervention, which aims to investigate the effects of a procedure, based on the ability of attributing mental states to others in autistic children. It is to guide mothers of autistic children to the use of children's stories telling based on the use of mental terms and explanations of mental states of desires, beliefs, intentions and emotions about the characters in order to foster the ability of understanding other people's mental states. Three children, ages 11 to 16, one boy and two girls students of regular schools from the state of Minas Gerais, participated of this research together with their mothers. The Theory of Mind was assessed in the pretest as well as the posttest, according to The Theory of Mind Scale. The intervention procedure lasted for six months. During this period, there were two group orientation plus fifteen individual ones. The individual orientations were held weekly in the children's homes, shortly after the children's stories telling. The stories, told by their mothers, were video recorded, transcribed and submitted to the SPAD - T software for treatment and categorization of terms of mental states attributing. The results showed that the language used for the mother, according to the guideline containing terms and explanations of mental states, was favoring the manifestation of the Theory of Mind for their children. It was observed in two children that there was a relationship between the mother's language and the performance of false belief tasks. It was observed an increase in the use of emotional terms in the children's speech, and in cognitive terms on the mother s lines. It is considered that the language is a predictor in attributing mental states to other people, also in autistic children. Children with better language skills can evoke mental terms, and are able to hit in the false belief tasks / A manifestação da teoria da mente no autismo é uma questão singular, marcada pela hipótese de que existem déficits na capacidade de atribuição de estados mentais em crianças autistas, relacionados com os sintomas específicos que constituem o autismo. A presente pesquisa é um estudo experimental de intervenção, cujo objetivo é investigar os efeitos de um procedimento, baseado em linguagem, sobre a habilidade de atribuição de estados mentais ao outro, em crianças com autismo. Trata-se de orientar as mães de filhos autistas para o uso de narrativas de histórias infantis, baseadas no uso de termos mentais e explicações dos estados mentais de desejos, crenças, intenções e emoções, dos personagens, com o propósito de favorecer a capacidade de compreensão de estados mentais do outro. Participaram três crianças e suas mães, com idades de 11 e 16 anos, um menino e duas meninas, que frequentavam escolas regulares do estado de Minas Gerais. A teoria da mente foi avaliada no pré-teste e no pós-teste, pela Escala de Teoria da Mente. O procedimento de intervenção teve seis meses de duração. Nesse período, foram realizadas duas orientações coletivas e quinze individuais. As orientações individuais foram realizadas semanalmente, nas casas das crianças, logo após as narrativas de histórias infantis. As narrativas de histórias, realizadas pelas mães, foram videogravadas, transcritas e submetidas ao software SPAD-T, para tratamento e categorização de termos de atribuição de estados mentais. Os resultados demonstraram que a linguagem adotada pelas mães a partir das orientações, contendo termos e explicações sobre os estados mentais, foi favorecedora na manifestação da teoria da mente de seus filhos. Houve uma relação entre a linguagem materna e o desempenho das tarefas de crença falsa, observada em duas crianças. Foi observado o aumento no uso de termos emocionais nas falas das crianças, e de termos cognitivos nas falas maternas. Considera-se que a linguagem é preditora na atribuição de estados mentais ao outro, também em crianças autistas. As crianças que possuem melhores habilidades linguísticas podem evocar termos mentais e obter acerto nas tarefas de crença falsa

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rosimeire Aparecida Vicente Pellegrini.pdf: 2048927 bytes, checksum: ddfa2e715c0f9b209b1ae84b09b99575 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-02 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The skill development in understanding mental states wishes, intentions and beliefs has been studied by the name of Theory of Mind. It s at the early ages that children acquire the ability of understanding that other people have wishes, intentions and beliefs that can be different from theirs. The Theory of Mind is an important moment in the social cognitive development, because it allows us to explain and predict people s behavior, making interpersonal relationships easier. The objective of this research was to investigate how children attribute mental states of wishes, intentions and beliefs to stories characters and to analyse the given justifications in a way to verify the hypothesis of the relation between the language development and the theory of mind, focusing on the use of epistemic verbs (to know, to think, and to believe) and the ability to give coherent answers in the justifications of the theory of mind tasks. It was also the objective of this research to control the order effect in the application of the Scaling Tasks and to verify the relation to the age in mental states comprehension. 70 children in the age between 3 years old and 5 years and 11 months old from average and average high standard of living families who attended classes in a private school in São Caetano do Sul, a city in São Paulo took part of the study. A test of verbal level was done and seven Scaling Tasks were applied. The results showed that most of the children, when invited to justify their answers in the tasks of the theory of mind, reflected about their wrong answers and corrected themselves pointing out to the comprehension of the mental states. Regarding the variable order effect in the application of the Scale, it was noticed that some tasks which were considered more difficult by the literature were shown to be of easy comprehension to the participants of this research. It s important to emphasize that these results are preliminary and other studies involving a larger number of Brazilian kids are necessary to evaluate Scaling Tasks in the Theory of Mind. Regarding the difference in ages, the results agree with the literature, once the children tended to answer precociously to the tasks of wishes and tardily to the tasks of false belief. Another fact that also coincides with the former studies is the use of epistemic verbs by the children before the comprehension of mental verbs. These results support the hypothesis of a relation between the theory of mind and the language development / O desenvolvimento da habilidade de compreender estados mentais desejos, intenções e crenças tem sido estudado sob o nome de Teoria da Mente. É durante os primeiros anos de vida que as crianças adquirem essa habilidade de compreender que as outras pessoas possuem desejos, intenções, emoções e crenças, que podem ser diferentes das suas. A teoria da mente é marco importante no desenvolvimento sociocognitivo, pois permite explicar e predizer o comportamento dos outros, facilitando, assim, as relações interpessoais. O objetivo desta pesquisa é investigar como crianças fazem atribuições de estados mentais de desejos, intenções e crenças a personagens de histórias e analisar as justificativas dadas, de modo a verificar a hipótese de relação entre o desenvolvimento da linguagem e da teoria da mente, dando-se atenção específica ao uso de verbos epistêmicos (saber, achar, acreditar, pensar) e à capacidade de dar respostas coerentes nas justificativas das tarefas de teoria da mente. É também objetivo da pesquisa controlar o efeito de ordem na aplicação da Escala de Tarefas e verificar a relação com a idade na compreensão de estados mentais. Participaram do estudo 70 crianças com idade variando de 3 anos a 5 anos e 11 meses, provenientes de famílias de nível socioeconômico médio e médio alto, que frequentavam uma escola de educação infantil da rede particular de ensino, na cidade de São Caetano do Sul, na grande São Paulo. Foi feita uma prova de nível verbal e aplicadas as sete tarefas da escala. Os resultados mostram que as crianças, ao serem convidadas a justificarem suas respostas nas tarefas de teoria da mente, em sua grande maioria, refletem sobre suas respostas erradas e se autocorrigem, apontando para a compreensão dos estados mentais. Quanto à variável efeito de ordem na aplicação da Escala, foi constatado que algumas tarefas, consideradas pela literatura como sendo mais difíceis, mostraram-se de fácil compreensão para os participantes da pesquisa. Salienta-se que esses resultados são preliminares e outros estudos envolvendo um número maior de crianças brasileiras são necessários para avaliação da Escala de Tarefas de Teoria da Mente. Em relação à variável idade, os resultados concordam com a literatura, uma vez que as crianças tenderam a responder precocemente as tarefas de desejos e, tardiamente, as tarefas de crença falsa. Outro dado que também coincide com estudos anteriores é o uso de verbos epistêmicos, pelas crianças, antes mesmo da compreensão de estados mentais. Esses resultados amparam a hipótese de uma relação entre a teoria da mente e o desenvolvimento da linguagem

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Soares Freitas de Souza.pdf: 1665142 bytes, checksum: 305a6c3fa83ebb19631efa0d6aef9ff9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Children s capacity to attribute mental states such as desires, intentions and beliefs to themselves and to others, named Theory of mind, is essential for successful social relationships. There is evidence that children s stories contribute to the development of the theory of mind. The present intervention research, conducted in a municipal public school in Mogi das Cruzes/SP, aimed to guide elementary school teachers to use some language involving mental terms and verbs during story telling to their students, explaining the characters mental states. The participants were two teachers and 50 students, 27 boys and 23 girls, between five years old and 5 years and 11 months old. Two studies were developed (Study 1 and Study 2) by adopting the same design: a) a pre-test Wellman and Liu s (2004) scale of seven theory of mind tasks was applied to the children; b) intervention two meetings were held in order that the researcher could offer the teachers theoretical guidelines about the theory of mind, and ten practical workshops were carried out, in which the researcher worked on children s stories and taught the teachers how they should tell their students the stories by using some language involving mental terms and/or verbs; c) a post-test the seven theory of mind tasks were reapplied. All story telling developed by the teachers was transcribed and submitted to SPAD-T software. In Study 1, the teachers and their respective groups (25 students each group) were randomly chosen to be the experimental group (GE) and the control group (GC). The GE teacher received theoretical and practical instructions from the researcher in the intervention, whereas the GC teacher did not receive any instructions, she was just asked to tell the stories in her usual way. In Study 2, the teacher (control group of Study 1) received from the researcher the instructions to tell their students the stories. The results of both studies showed that after the intervention, the teachers started to adopt some language that was rich in mental terms, and such languge helped trigger the theory of mind in their students, who had a significantly better performance in the theory of mind tasks after their teachers had received the researcher s instructions. Such results support the hypothesis of a relation between the attribution of mental states and language development. The story telling activity in elementary school turned out to be a resource that favors the development of the theory of mind in children / A capacidade da criança para atribuir estados mentais como desejos, intenções e crenças a si própria e às outras pessoas, denominada teoria da mente, é fundamental para o êxito das relações sociais. Há indícios de que as histórias infantis contribuem com o desenvolvimento da teoria da mente. A presente pesquisa de intervenção, realizada em uma escola da rede pública municipal de ensino da cidade de Mogi das Cruzes/SP, teve por objetivo orientar professoras da Educação Infantil a utilizarem uma linguagem envolvendo termos e verbos mentais durante a contação de histórias para seus alunos, explicando os estados mentais dos personagens. Participaram duas professoras e 50 alunos, sendo 27 meninos e 23 meninas, com idade entre 5 anos e 5 anos e 11 meses. Foram realizados dois estudos (Estudo 1 e Estudo 2) adotando o mesmo delineamento: a) pré-teste foram aplicadas nas crianças as sete tarefas de teoria da mente da escala de Wellman e Liu (2004); b) intervenção foram realizadas 2 sessões nas quais a pesquisadora ofereceu às professoras explicações teóricas sobre a teoria da mente, e dez sessões práticas nas quais trabalhou com histórias infantis e as orientou sobre como deveriam contar histórias aos seus alunos, utilizando uma linguagem envolvendo termos e verbos mentais; c) pós-teste foram reaplicadas as sete tarefas de teoria da mente. Todas as contações de histórias feita pelas professoras foram transcritas e submetidas ao software SPAD-T. No Estudo 1, as professoras e suas respectivas turmas (cada uma com 25 alunos) foram escolhidas aleatoriamente para compor o grupo experimental (GE) e o grupo controle (GC). A professora do GE recebeu as instruções teóricas e práticas da pesquisadora na intervenção; já a professora do GC não recebeu nenhum tipo de orientação, apenas foi instruída a contar as histórias à sua maneira habitual. No Estudo 2, a professora (grupo controle do Estudo 1) passou a receber da pesquisadora as orientações para contar as histórias aos seus alunos. Os resultados dos dois estudos indicaram que após a intervenção, as professoras passaram a adotar uma linguagem enriquecida de termos mentais, e essa linguagem foi favorecedora da manifestação da teoria da mente em seus alunos, os quais tiveram um desempenho significativamente melhor nas tarefas de teoria da mente após as suas professoras terem recebido as orientações da pesquisadora. Esses resultados dão sustentação à hipótese de uma relação entre a atribuição de estados mentais e o desenvolvimento da linguagem. A atividade de contação de histórias nas classes de Educação Infantil mostrou-se como um recurso favorecedor do desenvolvimento da teoria da mente em crianças

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Simone Priscila Paludeto.pdf: 1981101 bytes, checksum: 40c0a9203c006913d1ab71e910e22e46 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The theory of mind and empathy are important socio-cognitive skills whose theoretical boundaries are not clearly defined. These skills develop gradually in children, and are essential to everyday interactions and children's social learning. Thus, we find it relevant to study the relationship between the development of theory of mind and empathy, as these two skills are important dimensions of social-emotional development and children's social-cognitive. The main objective of this research was to investigate the associations between theory of mind and empathic ability in children during early childhood education. Thus, our study aims to investigate the relationship between theory of mind and empathy as integral parts of social cognitive development. Participants in this study included 40 children aged between 3 and 6 years. Children's performance in tasks theory of mind and empathy, quantitatively and qualitatively, was analyzed by age group. Children were considered to be 3, 4, 5 and 6 years, descriptively, and then two groups of 3 and 4 years and 5 and 6 years. The second analysis was performed using the Student T test. Analysis of correlation between theory of mind and empathy with the Pearson test was performed. The results showed the existence of a correlation between empathy and theory of mind, although not statistically significant, except in relation to the false belief task. Also, we could see a correlation in our study between better performance of children in theory of mind and empathy with increasing age of the child / A teoria da mente e a empatia, cujas fronteiras teóricas ainda não estão claramente definidas, são habilidades sociocognitivas importantes, que se desenvolvem gradualmente na infância, sendo fundamentais para interações cotidianas e aprendizagem social da criança. Acreditamos relevante estudar a relação entre o desenvolvimento da teoria da mente e a empatia, visto que tais habilidades são dimensões importantes do desenvolvimento socioemocional e sociocognitivo da criança. O objetivo do presente estudo é investigar associações entre a teoria da mente e a habilidade empática em crianças da educação infantil. Dessa forma, nosso estudo propõe-se verificar a relação entre a teoria de mente e a empatia como partes integrantes do desenvolvimento sociocognitivo. Participaram desta pesquisa 40 crianças com idades compreendidas entre 3 e 6 anos. Foi analisado o desempenho das crianças nas tarefas de teoria da mente e empatia, quantitativa e qualitativamente, por faixa etária. Foram consideradas as crianças de 3, 4, 5 e 6 anos de maneira descritiva e depois dois grupos: de 3 e 4 anos e de 5 e 6 anos. Para essa segunda análise, foi utilizado o teste T de Student. Também foi utilizada a análise de correlação entre teoria da mente e empatia com o teste de Pearson. Os resultados demonstraram a existência de uma correlação entre empatia e teoria da mente estatisticamente significativa, no que diz respeito à tarefa de crença falsa, mas não significativa nas outras tarefas de teoria da mente. Também foi verificado neste estudo um melhor desempenho das crianças em teoria da mente e em empatia conforme o aumento da idade da criança

Previous studies on the relation between language and social cognition have shown that children’s mastery of embedded sentential complements plays a causal role for the development of a Theory of Mind (ToM). Children start to succeed on complementation tasks in which they are required to report the content of an embedded clause in the second half of the fourth year. Traditional ToM tasks test the child’s ability to predict that a person who is holding a false belief (FB) about a situation will act "falsely". In these task, children do not represent FBs until the age of 4 years. According the linguistic determinism hypothesis, only the unique syntax of complement sentences provides the format for representing FBs. However, experiments measuring children’s looking behavior instead of their explicit predictions provided evidence that already 2-year olds possess an implicit ToM. This dissertation examined the question of whether there is an interrelation also between implicit ToM and the comprehension of complement sentences in typically developing German preschoolers. Two studies were conducted. In a correlational study (Study 1 ), 3-year-old children’s performance on a traditional (explicit) FB task, on an implicit FB task and on language tasks measuring children’s comprehension of tensed sentential complements were collected and tested for their interdependence. Eye-tracking methodology was used to assess implicit ToM by measuring participants’ spontaneous anticipatory eye movements while they were watching FB movies. Two central findings emerged. First, predictive looking (implicit ToM) was not correlated with complement mastery, although both measures were associated with explicit FB task performance. This pattern of results suggests that explicit, but not implicit ToM is language dependent. Second, as a group, 3-year-olds did not display implicit FB understanding. That is, previous findings on a precocious reasoning ability could not be replicated. This indicates that the characteristics of predictive looking tasks play a role for the elicitation of implicit FB understanding as the current task was completely nonverbal and as complex as traditional FB tasks. Study 2 took a methodological approach by investigating whether children display an earlier comprehension of sentential complements when using the same means of measurement as used in experimental tasks tapping implicit ToM, namely anticipatory looking. Two experiments were conducted. 3-year-olds were confronted either with a complement sentence expressing the protagonist’s FB (Exp. 1) or with a complex sentence expressing the protagonist’s belief without giving any information about the truth/ falsity of the belief (Exp. 2). Afterwards, their expectations about the protagonist’s future behavior were measured. Overall, implicit measures reveal no considerably earlier understanding of sentential complementation. Whereas 3-year-olds did not display a comprehension of complex sentences if these embedded a false proposition, children from 3;9 years on were proficient in processing complement sentences if the truth value of the embedded proposition could not be evaluated. This pattern of results suggests that (1) the linguistic expression of a person’s FB does not elicit implicit FB understanding and that (2) the assessment of the purely syntactic understanding of complement sentences is affected by competing reality information. In conclusion, this dissertation found no evidence that the implicit ToM is related to the comprehension of sentential complementation. The findings suggest that implicit ToM might be based on nonlinguistic processes. Results are discussed in the light of recently proposed dual-process models that assume two cognitive mechanisms that account for different levels of ToM task performance. / Zahlreiche Studien legen nahe, dass der Erwerb finiter Komplementsatzstrukturen eine Voraussetzung für die Entwicklung einer Theory of Mind (ToM) ist. Kinder beginnen in circa der zweiten Hälfte ihres 4. Lebensjahres Komplementsatzverständnisaufgaben zu lösen, die eine Wiedergabe des Komplementsatzes erfordern. Die ToM wird klassischerweise als erworben bezeichnet, wenn ein Kind korrekt vorhersagen kann, dass eine Person, die eine falsche Überzeugung hat, entsprechend "falsch" handeln wird. Es ist bekannt, dass sich diese Fähigkeit bei Kindern mit circa 4 Jahren entwickelt. Gemäß der Hypothese des linguistischen Determinismus liefert die syntaktische Komplexität von Komplementsatzstrukturen das Format, um falsche Überzeugungen mental zu repräsentieren. In ToM Aufgaben, die erfassen, wo Kinder eine zukünfige Handlung einer fehlinformierten Person antizipieren, konnte allerdings bereits schon bei 2-Jährigen das Verstehen falscher Überzeugungen nachgewiesen werden. Diese frühe Fähigkeit wird auch implizite ToM genannt, da diese Art der Aufgabe keine bewusste Entscheidung verlangt. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht erstmalig im Deutschen, ob der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Verstehen von Komplementsatzstrukturen und ToM auch für diese implizite Fähigkeit gilt. Zwei Studien wurden durchgeführt. In Studie 1 wurden die Leistungen von 3-Jährigen in einer klassischen (expliziten) ToM Aufgabe, einer impliziten ToM Aufgabe und in Komplementsatzverständnisaufgaben erhoben und auf korrelative Zusammenhänge hin getestet. Dabei wurde mittels eines Eye-Trackers das antizipative Blickverhalten gemessen und somit auf das Vorhandensein einer impliziten ToM geschlossen. Die Leistungen in den Sprachaufgaben korrelierten nicht mit den Blickdaten, obwohl beide Maße mit den Leistungen in der expliziten ToM Aufgabe in Beziehung standen. Unerwarteterweise konnte jedoch generell kein implizites Verstehen falscher Überzeugungen bei 3-jährigen nachgewiesen werden. Da die implizite ToM Aufgabe nichtsprachlich war, wird der Einfluss von Aufgabeneigenschaften auf die Elizitierung von impliziter ToM diskutiert. Studie 2 untersuchte, ob 3-Jährige ein früheres, implizites Verstehen von Komplementsatzstrukturen in Aufgaben zeigen, in denen antizipatorische Blicke anstelle von expliziten Antworten gemessen werden und damit das gleiche Maß verwendet wird wie in impliziten ToM Aufgaben. Zwei Experimente wurden durchgeführt. Der präsentierte Komplementsatz drückte entweder eine falsche Überzeugung des Protagonisten aus (Exp. 1) oder eine Überzeugung, deren Wahrheitsgehalt nicht bestimmt wurde (Exp. 2). Während bei 3-Jährigen kein Verstehen von Komplementsatzstrukturen, die eine falsche Proposition enthielten, nachgewiesen werden konnte, zeigten Kinder ab einem Alter von 3;9 Jahren, dass sie den komplexen Satz verarbeiten, wenn dieser keine falsche Proposition beinhaltet. Dieses Ergebnismuster spricht dafür, dass (1) der sprachliche Ausdruck einer falschen Überzeugung die implizite ToM nicht elizitieren kann und dass (2) das Erfassen des rein syntaktischen Verstehens durch zusätzliche Realitätsinformation beeinträchtigt wird. Zusammenfassend konnte in der vorliegenden Arbeit kein Hinweis dafür gefunden werden, dass die implizite ToM in gleicher Weise wie die explizite ToM mit dem Verstehen von Komplementsatzstrukturen einhergeht. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass vielmehr nonlinguistische Faktoren bei der Entwicklung einer impliziten ToM eine Rolle spielen könnten. Die Resultate werden mit Blick auf aktuelle Zwei-Prozess-Modelle diskutiert.

La tesi è articolata in due studi entrambi condotti nel settore di studi della teoria della mente. I due ambiti indagati sono l'abilità di finzione e la comprensione morale, in condizioni evolutive tipiche e atipiche. Il primo ambito indagato è il gioco di finzione nello sviluppo tipico, in particolare in riferimento all'interazione con la madre. I dati ottenuti dallo studio condotto, in cui si sono analizzate le espressioni verbali materne, supportano l'ipotesi dell'esistenza di una tendenza delle madri ad utilizzare un linguaggio mentalistico in modo appropriato durante l'interazione di finzione con i loro bambini. Il secondo ambito di indagine è la comprensione morale, nello specifico la valutazione delle intenzioni che sottendono azioni di valenza morale in soggetti autistici. Lo studio condotto analizza la capacità di mentalizzazione e di comprensione morale e i loro eventuali legami, nell'autismo ad alto funzionamento e nello sviluppo tipico. I risultati della ricerca mostrano che, in accordo con la letteratura, si riscontrano difficoltà negli autistici nelle prove mentalistiche, ma non nelle prove sulla comprensione morale. / My dissertation consists of two researches concerning theory of mind, in particular pretend play and moral understanding, in typical and atypical development. The first study investigated the maternal mental language used during mother-child interaction in pretend and real contexts. The results suggest that mothers used an appropriated mental language during the mother-child interaction in pretend. The second study analyzed theory of mind and moral understanding in children with autism high-functioning and normal development children. The aim of this research was to explore evaluation of the intention of moral action and its link with mentalization ability. According to literature, results show significant differences between autistic and control groups in theory of mind tasks, but not in moral understanding tasks.

Questa tesi di dottorato si divide in tre capitoli. I primi due capitoli riguardano il panorama teorico affrontato e il terzo rappresenta il cuore della ricerca. / This PhD dissertation is divided into three chapters, the first two concerning the theoretical panorama investigated and the third centred on the presentation of the research.

Lo scopo della presente tesi consiste nell’esplorare la possibile connessione tra la Teoria della Mente (ToM) e due dimensioni implicate nel processo decisionale: l’abilità di resistere ai bias che intervengono durante la valutazione della decisione e la capacità di scegliere quando è implicata la dimensione temporale, entrambe considerate in una prospettiva evolutiva. Il primo capitolo definisce una panoramica in merito alla ToM; il secondo fornisce un’ampia descrizione in merito ai bias legati alla decisione: hindsight bias e outcome bias; mentre il terzo si focalizza sulle scelte basate sulla dimensione temporale. Il quarto e il quinto capitolo presentano due contributi relativi a come questi temi si sviluppano e come sono connessi. Entrambe le ricerche si focalizzano su bambini di scuola primaria, una fascia d’età che solo recentemente è stata oggetto d’indagine in letteratura. Nel primo studio, l’attenzione si è diretta verso la ToM e il possibile legame con i bias della decisione; nel secondo studio, l’abilità di mindreading è presa in considerazione quando i bambini devono prendere decisioni che richiedono la capacità di gestire la dimensione temporale del presente e del futuro. I risultati evidenziano il ruolo chiave della mentalizzazione nel processo decisionale. / The aim of this thesis is to explore the possible connection between Theory of Mind (ToM) and two dimensions implicated in the decisional process: the ability to resist to the biases that occur during the evaluation of a decision and the ability to decide when a temporal dimension is involved, both considered in a developmental perspective. The first chapter presents an overview on ToM; the second one provides a wide description of the most investigated decision evaluation biases: hindsight bias and outcome bias; whereas the third one focuses on the choices based on the temporal dimension. The fourth and the fifth chapters show two empirical contributes on how these themes develop and how they are connected. The focus is on primary school-age children, an age range that only recently has been explored. Specifically, in the first study the attention has been directed towards ToM and its possible link with hindsight and outcome biases. In the second study, the mindreading ability is analyzed when children have to take decisions that require the ability to manage the temporal dimension of the present and of the future. The results of both researches highlight the crucial role of mentalizing in the decision-making process.