ABSTRACT
This study analyzes the relation between cognitive and affective components of theory of mind (ToM) in school-aged children and persuasion abilities. One-hundred forty-three normotypical school children aged 6 to 12 were administered cognitive and affective ToM tasks and one persuasion production task. A set of regression models showed that only the affective ToM component can predict both the persuasion total scores and all its indicators' scores. Children with a greater ability to attribute emotional mental states do not only produce a wider variety of persuasive arguments but also arguments focused on the persuadee and those with mental-related content. Both Hidden Emotion and Belief-Emotion (negative) tasks have been predictive of persuasion total scores. This study provides data on specific contribution of cognitive ToM and affective ToM on indicators of variety and quality of persuasive arguments independently.
ABSTRACT
Lies and irony are paradigmatic examples of nonliteral communication; many deaf children and even adults have difficulty in understanding them. The present study assessed the understanding of lies and irony in 96 adolescents living in Spain in urban settings (58 deaf participants, 38 hearing participants; 10-19 years old). We investigated whether deaf and hearing participants differ in their performance, and the effects of age, theory of mind (ToM), and language on the understanding of these nonliteral meanings in deaf participants. The results show that deaf participants do not find it difficult to detect nonliteral statements, but they experience difficulty in attributing the real motivation to the speaker. ToM and language explained performance in the understanding of nonliteral communication in the deaf group. The results suggest the need to focus on promoting the ability to attribute real motivations to speakers. We propose an assessment sequence that differs from those used in other studies. In the proposed sequence, ToM skills would be combined with other skills that influence the understanding of lies and irony and would be sequenced according to the observed performance in deaf adolescents.
Subject(s)
Comprehension , Persons With Hearing Impairments/psychology , Psychology, Adolescent , Adolescent , Case-Control Studies , Deafness/psychology , Female , Humans , Language , Male , Young AdultABSTRACT
Las nuevas tecnologías audioprotésicas proporcionan a los niños sordos una discriminación de la palabra impensable hace unos años. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar el desarrollo gramatical de niños sordos que emplean dichas tecnologías y comprobar qué variables inciden en las diferencias interindividuales. Se ha evaluado a 32 niños de entre 3 y 7 años con pérdidas auditivas prelocutivas bilaterales superiores a 70 dB, que emplean audífono de programación digital o implante coclear unilateral o bilateral. A cada participante se le administró la prueba Escalas de Desarrollo del Lenguaje de Reynell III, que incluye una escala de comprensión verbal y otra de lenguaje expresivo. Los resultados muestran que solo un 30% de los participantes alcanza un desarrollo lingüístico normalizado. En la escala de comprensión, la dificultad comienza en oraciones que relacionan más de 2 elementos, y se hace muy patente en pasivas y subordinadas. En expresión, la gramática que resulta más compleja a la mayoría es la correspondiente a la edad de 3 años. Y también se detectan dificultades importantes en la flexión de verbos en pasado, tercera persona y plural de sustantivos. La edad de colocación de la prótesis o el implante resulta ser la variable más explicativa, y a ella se suma el nivel sociocultural familiar (AU)
The new auditory technologies provide deaf children with auditory speech discrimination that was unthinkable a few years ago. The aim of this study was to analyze grammatical development in deaf children using new auditory technologies, and to confirm which variables account for intersubject differences. We evaluated 32 children (aged 3-7 years) with bilateral and congenital or pre-speech deafness and hearing loss greater than 70 dB, who used digital hearing aids or cochlear implants. The Reynell Developmental Language Scales III was administered in each child. The results showed that only 30% of the participants demonstrated age-appropriate language skills. In language comprehension, sentences connecting more than 2 elements caused difficulties, which were greater when these sentences were passive and subordinate. In expressive language, a grammatical level equivalent to that in 3-year-olds caused the most difficulty for most of the participants. Expressive language related to inflections of past tense and third person verbs, and plural noun construction also caused difficulties. The most explanatory variable was age at implantation and at prosthesis fitting in deaf children. The family's sociocultural level was also important (AU)
