Exploring the Relation Between Children’s Theory of Mind and Social Understanding

Theory of mind and social understanding are both components of children’s social-cognitive development and rapidly develop in preschool age children. Related to the ability to understand the mental states of others, theory of mind is the ability to recognize other people’s thoughts, beliefs, desires, and knowledge, and is commonly assessed through false belief understanding. As a child interacts with caregivers and friends, they are able to infer more about what another person may be thinking or feeling, increasing their overall social understanding. The current study tested children’s (N = 39; 3-5 years) false belief understanding using the unexpected contents task, requiring a child to recall their own previous false belief and another person’s false belief. In addition, each participant’s guardian completed the Children’s Social Understanding Scale—Short Form (CSUS) to report their child’s social-cognitive understanding including components such as intentions, desires, beliefs, and knowledge. Analyses will be conducted to explore any possible associations between theory of mind, social understanding, and age. We know that a child may not gain all traits of theory of mind at the same time. Because false belief understanding is only one facet of theory of mind, it will be interesting to note whether other areas of mental reasoning are developed or not using the CSUS.