Psychological research suggests that children acquire cultural concepts through early developing cognitive mechanisms combined with specific cultural learning. An understudied area of cultural acquisition is children’s understanding of non-human minds, such as God. This thesis gives evidence that young children need not anthropomorphize non-human minds in order to understand them. Instead, children have a general “theory of mind” that is tailored through experience to accommodate the various important minds in their cultural environment. The intuitive default is toward super-attributes, making children naturally inclined or “prepared” to acquire god concepts. Four empirical studies were conducted with 75 British and 66 Israeli preschool-aged children. In Study 1, children participated in an ignorance-based theory-of-mind task and were asked to consider the mental states of human and supernatural agents. Children at all ages attributed correct knowledge to the supernatural agents and ignorance to the human agents. In Study 2, children participated in two perception-based theory-of-mind tasks and were asked to consider the perspective of two super-perceiving animals, God, and two human agents. Three-year-olds attributed knowledge to the animals and God and, by age four, children could distinguish among agents correctly. Also, by age four, children recognized that aging limits the perception of human agents but not God’s. In Study 3, children participated in a memory-based theory-of-mind task in which they were asked to consider the memory of God and differently aged agents Children at all ages responded that God would remember something that the children themselves had forgotten. By age five, children responded that a baby and granddad would have forgotten. These results propose that preschool-aged children regard individual constraints when considering mental states. Study 4 focused on children’s notions of immortality. Cultural differences were found. British children attributed immortality to God before correctly attributing mortality to human agents, and Israeli children attributed immortality to God and mortality to humans more consistently than did British children. Collectively, these studies indicate that children do not have to resort to anthropomorphism to reason about non-human agents but instead have the cognitive capacity to represent other types of minds because of early cognitive capacities. It appears that concepts vary in their degree of fit with early-developing human conceptual systems, and hence, vary in their likelihood of successful cultural transmission.

Child language brokers frequently translate in adult-level situations. Research has suggested that through translating, brokers may develop advanced language, cognitive, and social skills (De Ment, Buriel, and Villanueva, 2005; McQuillan and Tse, 1995), and these may lead to greater academic achievement and self-efficacy (Buriel, Perez, De Ment, Chavez,and Moran, 1998). Additionally, language brokers have been found to increase in biculturalism as they translate for people of different cultures (Acoach and Webb, 2004; Buriel et al., 1998). Brokers might experience reduced acculturative stress, for which biculturalism has been found to be a protective factor (Bacallao and Smokowski, 2005). Despite its possible benefits, brokering has been associated with negative emotions and behavioral problems for some children (Chao, 2006; Weisskirch and Alva, 2002). The mixed results of language brokering studies may partially be related to the age of participants, with translating appearing to be a more positive experience for older adolescents (Orellana and Reynolds, 2008). The purpose of this study was to test relations among language brokering, academic achievement, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. I proposed and tested if language brokering was associated with more positive outcomes. In addition, I tested if older brokers had more positive outcomes than younger brokers. Participants included 207 Latino middle school students, aged 10 to 14 years, who completed self-report surveys. Measures included a background demographics questionnaire and scales for language brokering, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. Achievement was measured with grades from school records. Results were non-significant for the relation of language brokering with achievement and social self-efficacy when controlling for other predictor variables. In contrast to expectations, translating for more people was associated with decreased academic self-efficacy and greater acculturative stress. Further analysis revealed that language brokering for parents and grandparents was associated with greater acculturative stress, while translating for other people was not. Although translating was associated with more acculturative stress, and older children reported less acculturative stress, age was not found to moderate the relation of language brokering and acculturative stress. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future directions in language brokering research and clinical work are presented. / text

Pourquoi agissons-nous dans certaines circonstances de manière irrépressible ? Nos actes doivent-ils pour autant être considérés comme inconscients ? Peut-on apprendre inconsciemment ? La conscience et le contrôle peuvent-ils être dissociés? Ces questions ont été abordées dans le cadre de ma thèse de doctorat.

The nurturing of creative thinking skills is one of the cornerstones of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE). This study investigated to what extent teachers nurture the development of creative thinking through the choice of teaching methods, which include the application of teaching strategies and the utilization of resources, in the Grade 9 Social Sciences classroom. A literature study was undertaken to highlight the importance and nature of the development of creative thinking skills, and to establish which teaching methods, strategies and resources nurture the development of creative thinking in Social Sciences classrooms. The literature review provided the conceptual framework for the study, as well as the framework for designing a questionnaire that was utilized to obtain the perceptions of learners regarding the teaching methods, strategies and resources that their teachers use to nurture the development of creative thinking in the Grade 9 Social Sciences classroom. By means of a sequential explanatory mixed method research design, quantitative data were collected by means of a self-constructed questionnaire that was administrated to a convenient sample of a purposively selected group of Grade 9 Social Sciences learners (n=399) in the D7 district of the Gauteng Department of Education. Following this, a qualitative interview, which was constructed from the findings in the questionnaire, was conducted with purposively selected Grade 9 Social Sciences teachers (n=6) in order to ascertain the reasons behind the quantitative findings. The combination of quantitative and qualitative data revealed differences and similarities in opinion related to the teaching methods, strategies and resources that teachers use for nurturing creative thinking. In essence, the data revealed that teachers are, to some extent, nurturing creative thinking through their choice of teaching methods and strategies as well as the questioning techniques that they choose. However, the responses did not convincingly indicate to the researcher that the nurturing of creative thinking skills takes place on a regular and frequent basis. According to the learner responses, it appeared that teaching and learning methods and strategies that promote indirect, independent, interactive and experiential learning, are under-used by the Grade 9 Social Sciences teachers. In addition, resources that nurture creative elaboration such as political cartoons and photographs appear to be under-utilized. This study is concluded with recommendations to teachers concerning which teaching methods, strategies and resources could be implemented in order to promote the nurturing of creative thinking in the Grade 9 Social Sciences classroom. / Thesis (MEd (Learning and Teaching))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

Regular aerobic exercise has a wide range of positive effects on health and cognition. Exercise has been demonstrated to provide a particularly powerful and replicable method of triggering a wide range of structural changes within both human and animal brains. However, the details and mechanisms of these changes remain poorly understood. This thesis undertakes a comprehensive examination of the relationship between brain plasticity and aerobic exercise. A large, longitudinal experiment was conducted in which healthy but sedentary participants were scanned before and after six-weeks of monitored aerobic exercise. Increases in the volume of the anterior hippocampus were observed, as previously reported in an older cohort after a longer exercise intervention. Multimodal imaging methods allowed an in-depth exploration of the mechanisms underlying this volume change, which proved to be dominated by white matter changes rather than the vascular changes that have been previously reported. A surprising global change in the balance of CSF, blood, and brain tissue within the cranial cavity was also observed. Cross-sectional differences in memory and brain structure associated with fitness were also observed. The volume of the anterior hippocampus was shown to correlate with a measure of working memory. Higher cerebral blood volume throughout the brain was found to correlate with greater fitness and better working memory. Focal associations between fitness and magnetic susceptibility, a measure of iron content, were also observed in the basal ganglia. These findings demonstrate that aerobic fitness is associated with improved cognition and brain structure throughout the lifespan rather than simply acting to mitigate age related brain atrophy or accelerate brain development. Finally, a new pipeline was developed for analysing hippocampal morphometry using high-resolution, 7 Tesla scans. Striking variability in the convolution of the hippocampal surface is reported. This technique shows promise for imaging the precise nature of the change in hippocampal volume associated with aerobic exercise. This thesis adds to the evidence that aerobic exercise is a potent catalyst for behavioural and brain plasticity while also demonstrating that the mechanisms for those plastic changes are likely different than previously supposed. Future work will refine these measurement techniques, perhaps to a point where brain changes can be monitored on a single subject level. This work will provide an important tool to understand how best to utilize aerobic exercise to facilitate adaptive behavioural changes, mitigate the negative effects of ageing and disease on the brain, and maximize the benefits of active lifestyles.

It is increasingly recognised that, in adulthood, attentional control plays an important role in optimising the ability to encode and maintain items in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Memory capacity limits increase dramatically over childhood, but the mechanisms through which children guide attention to maximise VSTM remain poorly understood. Through a number of experiments manipulating different parameters, the current thesis aimed to explore the developmental trajectories of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying selective attention within VSTM and to examine whether variations in attentional control are accompanied by individual differences in VSTM capacity. Chapters 2 and 3 investigated the development of attentional orienting in preparation for encoding and during maintenance. Younger children emerged as less able than older children and adults to orient attention to internally held representations. Therefore, Chapter 4 tested whether younger children’s attentional orienting is differentially affected by memory load. While attentional orienting prior to encoding was more beneficial when required to remember a greater number of items, cueing benefits during maintenance were similar across load conditions. Chapter 5 investigated whether temporal parameters influence younger children’s variable ability to orient attention during maintenance. Attentional orienting operated more efficiently on transient iconic traces rather than on VSTM representations due to passive decay of the memory traces as a function of time. Chapter 6 assessed whether the characteristics of the memoranda constrain the efficiency of attentional orienting within VSTM. Attentional orienting supported differentially the maintenance of familiar and meaningless items and pinpointed the quantitative improvement of mnemonic strategies over development. Finally, Chapter 7 examined the temporal dynamics of prospective and retrospective orienting of attention in VSTM. Children deployed neural pathways underpinning attentional orienting less efficiently than adults and differentially across the two orienting conditions suggesting their neural dissociation. Overall, findings from the current thesis define how children develop the ability to deploy attentional control in service of VSTM.

La gestion des buts, définie comme la capacité à se représenter les buts et à les maintenir activement en mémoire de travail, jouerait un rôle central dans l'efficience du contrôle exécutif. Cette thèse vise à étudier l'évolution de cette composante au cours de différents âges de la vie, ainsi que l'influence de verbalisations imposées sur ce développement. Quatre études ont été conduites et ont révélé 1) que l'amélioration de la capacité à gérer les buts lors de la période préscolaire s'accompagnait d'une évolution qualitative du contrôle; 2) que l'évolution des performances en flexibilité de l'enfance au grand âge était spécifiquement liée au développement de la gestion des buts ; et 3) que les verbalisations imposées modulaient le développement de la gestion des buts en produisant un bénéfice plus marqué chez les enfants et les adultes âgés. L'engagement d'un contrôle anticipé, proactif, lors de tâches d'alternance semble favorisé par l'emploi spontané de stratégies visant à orienter l'attention vers le but de la tâche, à la fois pour récupérer précocement la représentation du but, et pour la maintenir activement en mémoire lors des étapes de traitement de la tâche. L'effet bénéfique de verbalisations imposées chez les enfants et les adultes âgés suggère que ces populations présentent des difficultés à gérer les buts lorsqu'ils doivent effectuer la tâche en silence. Ces difficultés proviendraient d'une immaturité ou d'un déficit du langage interne, ou du fait qu'ils ne comprennent pas l'importance de s'engager dans une préparation anticipée de la tâche, ou encore qu'ils n'ont pas conscience que le recours au langage peut être bénéfique pour effectuer la tâche. / Goal-setting, defined as the ability to represent and maintain task goals in working memory, play a crucial role in executive control. The current work aims to study how this component develops across different age groups. It also examines whether required verbalizations have an impact on this development. To this end, four experimental studies were conducted, and revealed 1) that improvement in goal-setting ability during preschool years was associated with qualitative changes in the control used; 2) that flexibility abilities from childhood to old age was specifically linked to the development of goal-setting component; and 3) that requested verbalizations influenced the development of goal-setting ability by producing benefits in children and older adults. The use of proactive control in task-switching could be promoted by the spontaneous utilization of strategies which enable attention reorientation toward task goals to retrieve goal representation and to maintain it in memory during the processing steps of the task. The beneficial effect of requested verbalizations in children and older adults suggests that these age groups encounter goal-setting difficulties when asked to perform the task in silence. Such difficulties may stem from immaturity or deficits in inner speech, from the fact that these age groups do not understand the necessity to engage in an advance preparation of the task, or from their lack of awareness of the benefits induced by verbal strategies.

O consumo de álcool durante a gestação tem sido associado a alterações no desenvolvimento físico, neurológico e comportamental da criança, sendo que muitas das consequências sobre o desenvolvimento infantil apresentam ampla variação em extensão e gravidade. Os efeitos podem variar desde uma relativa normalidade até a morte perinatal e Síndrome Fetal do Álcool (SFA). No presente estudo foi avaliado o desenvolvimento cognitivo de crianças em idade escolar em relação ao padrão de consumo de álcool materno. Foram avaliadas oitenta e seis crianças de 8 a 9 anos de idade cujas mães (N = 449) haviam sido entrevistadas em 2001 durante o terceiro trimestre de gestação sobre o padrão de consumo de álcool e outras substâncias psicoativas, em um serviço obstétrico municipal da rede pública. Para avaliação cognitiva do grupo de crianças na idade escolar foi utilizada a Escala de Maturidade Mental Columbia (EMMC). O grupo constituído pelas mães ou cuidadores respondeu a um questionário sobre as condições sociodemográficas, saúde geral, e uso materno de álcool durante a gestação e recente. Foi realizada uma anamnese sobre o desenvolvimento neuropsicomotor e condições clínicas pregressas e atuais da criança. Foi utilizado o Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 6-18 anos) para a identificação de problemas de saúde mental na infância. Resultados mostram que, em relação à avaliação cognitiva das crianças, o RPI (resultado padrão por idade) variou de 64 a 134, com valor médio de 99,95 (± 16,01) e mediana de 103. Associação estatisticamente significativa foi observada entre os escores de RPI acima de 99,95 e maior idade materna e maior peso ao nascimento (p = 0,01 e 0,05 respectivamente). Diferença significativa também foi observada em relação ao número de filhos. Crianças com famílias com três ou mais filhos apresentaram RPI médio de 106,4 versus RPI de 99,10 para aquelas com famílias com menos de três filhos (P=0.04). Separando a amostra por gênero, observamos escores médios menores na Escala de Maturidade Mental Columbia em meninos filhos de mães que declararam cor mulata ou negra (p = 0,02), que fizeram uso em dias de qualquer quantidade de álcool na gestação maior que a média (p = 0.01) e também naqueles em que as mães usaram três ou mais doses de álcool por ocasião durante a gestação acima da média (p < 0.0001). Não foram observadas diferenças significativas para as outras variáveis analisadas. Em relação aos problemas de comportamento quando avaliados pelo CBCL, diferenças significativas foram observadas em relação ao uso de álcool durante a gestação no 2º, 3º trimestres e uso nos três trimestres com dados do GESTA-ÁLCOOL (p = 0,05, p = 0,01 e p = 0,02 respectivamente) e no 1º trimestre da gestação (p = 0,05), uso de qualquer quantidade de álcool em dias acima da média (p = 0,01), uso de três ou mais doses por ocasião acima da média (p = 0,05) com dados do INFANTO-ÁLCOOL. Foram observadas também diferenças significativas em relação ao uso atual de tabaco (p = 0,006), religião (p = 0,03) e escores médios de RPI da Escala de Maturidade Mental Columbia (p = 0,002) e escores de RPI um desvio-padrão abaixo da média (p = 0,03). Não foram observadas diferenças de média para nenhuma das outras variáveis analisadas. O uso leve/moderado de álcool na gestação esteve associado ao menor desempenho cognitivo e problemas comportamentais totais, especialmente em meninos. Estudos controlados com um número maior de casos e a introdução de marcadores biológicos de exposição ao álcool na gestação são necessários, a fim de possibilitar uma detecção precoce dos efeitos adversos, uma melhor compreensão da gravidade e da extensão dos danos no desenvolvimento cognitivo e identificação de funções cognitivas específicas que possam ser mais afetadas pela exposição pré-natal ao álcool, propiciando uma intervenção precoce nos possíveis déficits encontrados. / Prenatal alcohol exposure has been associated to problems in physical, neurological and behavioral child development and many of the consequences on childhood development show a wide range in extension and severity. The effects can vary from relative normality to perinatal death and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). In this study we analyzed the cognitive development of children at school age regarding to the maternal alcohol consumption at pregnancy. We evaluated eighty six children from eight to nine years old whose mothers (N = 449) have been interviewed in 2001 during the third trimester of pregnancy about the alcohol and other psychoactives substances pattern consumption, in a public obstetric hospital. Children cognitive status was assessed using the Columbia Mental Maturity Scale (CMMS). The group composed by mothers or caretakers answered a questionnaire about socio-demographic data, general health, prenatal and recent alcohol use. A brief anamnesis on neuropsychomotor development and previous and recent clinical conditions was made. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 6-18 years) was used to identify mental health disorders in childhood. Regarding to the children cognitive evaluation results showed that the ADS (age deviation scores) range from 64 to 134, with a mean value of 99.95 (± 16.01) e median of 103. Statistical significant association was found between RPI scores above 99.95 and older maternal age and birth weight (p = 0.01, p = 0.05 respectively). Analyzing the sample in relation to gender, we observed lower scores in Columbia Mental Maturity Scale in boys whose mothers declared color mulatto or black (p = 0.02), used in days any quantity of alcohol during pregnancy higher than average (p = 0.01) and also in those boys whose mothers used three or more doses of alcohol per occasion during pregnancy above average (p < 0.0001). No significant differences were observed for other variables analyzed. Significant differences were observed in relation to total behavior problems, when evaluated by CBCL, and alcohol use during gestation in 2nd, 3rd trimesters and use in all three trimesters with prospective data (p = 0.05, p = 0.01 and p = 0.02 respectively) and in 1º trimester of pregnancy (p = 0.05), use of any quantity of alcohol in days above average (p = 0.01), use of three or more doses per occasion above average (p = 0.05) with retrospective data. Significant differences were also observed in relation to recent tobacco use (p = 0.006), religion (p = 0.03), mean scores of RPI in Columbia Mental Maturity Scale (p = 0.002) and scores of RPI one standard deviation below the mean (p = 0.03). No differences were observed for other variables analyzed. Our findings suggest that, up to now, low/moderate alcohol use in gestation was associated to lower cognitive performance and total behavior problems, especially in boys. More controlled studies using a larger number of subjects and the introduction of biological markers of alcohol exposure in pregnancy are necessary in order to detect the adverse effects, to understand the extension of damages in cognitive development and to identify specific cognitive functions that could be more affected by prenatal alcohol exposure, contributing for development of early interventions.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o desenvolvimento de conceitos por cegos. Participaram da pesquisa sete cegos congênitos de ambos os sexos, com idades entre 8 e 13 anos, que foram entrevistados a fim de elucidar os recursos e caminhos de que se utilizam na formação de conceitos. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas fases. Em um primeiro momento (Fase 1), foram apresentadas seis histórias elaboradas por Keil e adaptadas ao nosso meio, com o objetivo de investigar a utilização dos atributos definidores e característicos pelos participantes. Na Fase 2, foi solicitado aos participantes que definissem 15 conceitos, sub-divididos em concretos e abstratos. A análise dos resultados evidenciou que os cegos baseiam-se, na maioria das vezes, em atributos definidores para responderem as questões das histórias da Fase 1. Para analisar as respostas da Fase 2, 13 categorias foram criadas. As categorias que mais se destacaram pelo alto número de respostas foram: Atributos Físicos Não Tateáveis, Comportamento/Exemplo e Contexto. Outras seis categorias estiveram presentes em três grupos de conceitos, todos eles concretos: Atributos Físicos Sonoros, Atributos Físicos Tateáveis, Comparação com outros conceitos, Função, Sinônimo e Vivência. As outras quatro categorias – Localização, Instrumento, Forma de Aprendizagem Formal e Informal – referem-se exclusivamente aos conceitos concretos não tateáveis. Verificou-se que cada tipo de conceito envolve formas diferenciadas de definição e de utilização de recursos perceptivos. A presente pesquisa identificou alguns caminhos conceituais utilizados pelo cego congênito, evidenciando a multiplicidade de possibilidades de aquisição e expressão de conceitos. Foram discutidas implicações deste trabalho no processo de ensino/aprendizagem de cegos. / The purpose of this research was to investigate the development of concepts by blind children. The subjects were 7 congenital blind children, from both genders, between 8 and 13 years, who was interviewed in order to enlighten the resources and ways the use to develop their concepts. The research was divided in two stages. In the Phase I stories were told to them in order to analyze the uses of attributes that define concepts (defining and characteristics) by subjects. In Phase II, they were asked to define 15 concepts (concrete and abstract). The results showed that blind children use more frequently defining attributes to answer the questions asked in Phase I. The responses of Phase II were grouped in 13 categories. The categories which were frequently answered were: Physical Sound Attributes, Physical Touchable Attributes, Comparison with other Concepts, Function, Synonymous and Living Experiences. The other four categories - Placing, Instruments, Formal and Informal Learning - refer exclusively to not touchable concrete concepts. Each kind of concept showed different ways to be defined and different uses of perceptive resources. This research identified some conceptual ways used by the congenital blind, showing the multiplicity of possibilities to acquire concepts and their expressions. It was discussed some implications about this work in the teaching and learning process of the blind.

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