Invited Symposium for ISSBD 2006
Invited Symposium title: "Sociocultural and communicative foundations of the
development of theory of mind"
Dedication in Memoriam: With deepest regret for his untimely loss, and celebration of
his vast and continuing contribution, this symposium is respectfully dedicated to the
memory of Giyoo Hatano.
Co- Convenors: Professor Giyoo Hatano, late of University of the Air and Keio
University, Tokyo, Japan and Professor Candida Peterson, University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia (candi@psy.uq.edu.au)
Paper Presenters: Professor Candida Peterson, University of Queensland, Brisbane,
Australia (candi@psy.uq.edu.au); Professor Joan Miller, New School for Social
Research, New York, USA (millerj@newschool.edu); and Dr. Mika Naito, Joetsu
University of Education, Nigata, Japan (mikan@juen.ac.jp)
Discussant: Professor Wolfgang Schneider, University of Wurtzburg, Wurtzburg,
Germany (psy4020@rzbox.uni-wuerzburg.de)
Symposium Overview Abstract: Theory of mind (ToM) describes a key cognitive
development involving social insight into own and others’ mental states (like feelings,
desires, intentions and true or false beliefs) and use of these cognitive attributions to
explain and predict human behaviour. As such, ToM forms the foundation for effective
social interaction and close relationships throughout life. Most typically developing
children in Western cultures acquire ToM as preschoolers. However, as this symposium
will reveal, children with atypical development owing to deafness or autism are often
dramatically delayed in ToM mastery behind what their chronological and mental ages
would predict. Furthermore, in certain non-Western cultures (notably India and Japan)
the developmental course of ToM and its patterns of connection with socio-moral and
emotional understanding may differ from the Western case. These findings are seen to
have broad implications for contemporary debates over the likely influences of innate
neurobiological maturation versus nurturing communicative and sociocultural
experiences upon both ToM growth and cognitive development more generally.
Paper Abstract: “Socio-Cultural Influences of the Growth of Social Understanding
for Deaf Children from Hearing and Deaf Families”
Candida C. Peterson University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
(candi@psy.uq.edu.au)
Theory of mind (ToM) is often assessed using “litmus” false belief tests that require
inferences about the thoughts or behaviour of actors with false beliefs. Though most 3year-olds fail these tests, by age 5 the typical hearing child passes. But deaf children from
hearing families are seriously delayed in ToM development, often continuing to fail false
belief during middle childhood and the teens (Peterson, 2004; Peterson & Siegal, 2000)
just like their peers with autism. The fact that deaf children with deaf parents (native
signers) develop ToM on the hearing child’s early timetable (e.g., Peterson, Wellman &
Liu, 2005) highlights the likely relevance of socio-cultural and communicative factors to
ToM growth. Building on these earlier findings, the present paper seeks further
understanding of how communication patterns and conversational opportunities interact
with the cultural worlds of peers and schooling to shape the growth of mentalistic
understanding in deaf children. I will first present new 2-year longitudinal data on the
false belief understanding of 18 late-signing deaf children aged 6 to 12. Next I will
examine cross-sectional links between false belief scores and teachers’ ratings of these
same children’s social and emotional maturity and peer interaction. Similar links between
social interaction and ToM will also be examined in group of 8 deaf native signers of
similar age. Implications of these findings for socio-cultural, conversational and
neurobiological-maturation theories of ToM development in typical and atypical groups
of children will be considered.
Paper Abstract: “The Complexity of Deontic Knowledge: Enculturation in
Developmental Change”
Joan Miller, New School for Social Research, New York, USA (millerj@newschool.edu)
Arguments have been made for the interdependence of deontic considerations,
involving conceptions of obligation and permission, and mentalistic considerations,
involving conceptions of beliefs and desires, in theory of mind understandings (Wellman
& Miller, 2005). Building on this insight, the present paper presents data on culturally
variable developmental changes that occur in the interrelationship of deontic and
mentalistic knowledge. A series of studies are described in which respondents are asked
to evaluate hypothetical situations that involve helping a family member either in the
presence or absence of explicit social expectations. The respondents include middle class
European American and middle class Hindu Indian participants in each of the following
age groups (age 6, age 9, adult). Within both cultural groups, choice is shown to become
increasingly important with age. However, whereas among European-Americans, duty
tends to be viewed as antithetical to choice and agency, among Hindu-Indians, duty tends
to be viewed as freely given yet also as expressive of agency. Studies are also discussed
which compare perceptions of the norm of reciprocity among both adult and child
samples. This work documents that US respondents are more prone to emphasis
balanced reciprocity and Indian respondents to emphasize generalized reciprocity, with
these patterns of response having differential implications in terms of mentalistic
inferences. Conclusions are drawn regarding the need to view developmental change as
involving the acquisition of discretionary interpretations of experience that are culturally
variable, rather than as following a universal cognitively based progression that directly
mirrors unmediated experience.
Paper Abstract: “A Long Way towards Integrated Social Cognition: Japanese
Children’s Understanding of Second-order False Beliefs and Complex Emotions”
Mika Naito, Joetsu University of Education, Nigata, Japan (mikan@juen.ac.jp)
Children’s social cognition has been extensively studied under the now wellknown title “theory of mind” (ToM). Yet, the scope of research has been limited. ToM
has been largely equated with early childhood development of an understanding firstorder false beliefs by children in the Western world. However, preschool children’s
understanding of beliefs and knowledge is not an end point but just a start of more
integrated social cognition of various kinds (Flavell, 2000). Furthermore, ToM does not
necessarily follow a universal developmental trajectory in all cultures (Naito & Koyama,
in press). The present paper illustrates how higher-order theory of mind and complex
emotional understanding are integrated beyond preschool years in Japanese children.
First, 4- to 8-year-olds received second-order false belief tasks (Sullivan, Zaitchik, &
Tager-Flusberg, 1994) and tasks of emotional display rules involving self-presentational
and prosocial motivations. A second study tested 7- to 11-year-olds on a simplified
second-order task and tasks of faux pas emotion. In contrast to Western children,
Japanese children did not understand second-order false beliefs until 8 years using
Sullivan et al.’s tasks, and not until age 11 using the conceptually simpler Study 2 task.
The emotion tasks were not passed until similar ages (display rules at 8 and faux pas at
11). Furthermore, only at these comparatively advanced ages was each of the emotional
comprehension tasks clearly associated with second-order false belief understanding of
different tasks. Sociocultural implications of theory of mind development that rests on the
cues embedded in tasks children can use are discussed, along with a model of the gradual
integration of cognitive and emotional understanding that arises synchronously but
independently.