Culturally constituted universals: Evidential basis of belief matters.

Differences in the sequence with which children pass the tasks in Wellman and Liu's (2004) theory of mind (ToM) battery is increasingly bringing into question the universal and cultural specifics of children's developing understanding of others' minds. Children from China, Iran, and Turkey pass the knowledge access (KA) task of the battery earlier than they pass the diverse beliefs (DB) task (e.g., Selcuk et al., 2018). This pattern is the reverse of what has been documented with children from Australia and the US (e.g., Peterson et al., 2005). This paper presents three studies with Turkish samples that explore the possible reasons for developmental sequence and performance differences in the ToM battery. Study 1 investigated Turkish-speaking adults' judgments of appropriateness for different epistemic verbs as used in the DB and false belief (FB) tasks. Study 2 investigated whether adults' performance (i.e., accuracy, reaction time) on FB tasks were affected by culturally preferred uses of these verbs. Collectively these studies showed that adults found different epistemic language ("guess," "think," and the Turkish-specific "falsely think") to be appropriate for different belief-based tasks. However, there was no difference in adults' performance based on epistemic language. In Study 3, Turkish-speaking preschoolers' performance in belief-related tasks based on variations in epistemic language and epistemic features (i.e., presence of evidence) was investigated. Among five modifications, Turkish children benefited only from a modification that involved the manipulation of the epistemological basis for ambiguous beliefs (i.e., visual evidence for belief). RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Turkish adults find different epistemic language ("guess," "think," and the Turkish-specific "falsely-think") to be appropriate for different belief-based tasks (diverse and false belief tasks). Turkish adults' performance on false belief (FB) tasks is not affected by epistemic language. Turkish children perform better in diverse beliefs (DB) task if an epistemological basis for ambiguous beliefs (i.e., visual evidence for either belief) is provided.

Uso da escala de tarefas em teoria da mente nas pesquisas brasileiras / The use of scaling of theory of mind tasks in brazilian research

A Teoria da mente se refere à capacidade de atribuir estados mentais a si mesmo e aos outros. Wellman e Liu organizaram uma escala para avaliar o desenvolvimento desta capacidade, composta por sete tarefas organizadas em ordem de dificuldade crescente. Esta revisão de literatura teve o objetivo de identificar os estudos brasileiros com esta escala e verificar, se o padrão desenvolvimental da teoria da mente observado pelos autores, também é encontrado entre as crianças brasileiras. Foram localizados 13 estudos, incluindo artigos, dissertações e teses publicados após 2007. Os resultados sugerem uma grande variação na administração da escala nos estudos brasileiros e no desempenho das crianças. Em alguns, as crianças foram melhor em tarefas mais difíceis do que nas mais fáceis, indicando que a ordem de dificuldade proposta pelos autores não é apropriada para as crianças brasileiras. Porém, por questões metodológicas, não há evidências suficientes para concluir que o padrão de desenvolvimento é significativamente diferente ou que a ordem de dificuldade não é a mesma. Assim, este estudo só pode explicar algumas deficiências e apontar caminhos futuros para novas pesquisas sobre a teoria da mente.(AU)

Theory of Mind refers to the cognitive ability to attribute mental states to self and others. Wellman and Liu organized a theory of mind scale to assess the development of this ability that is composed by 7 tasks, arranged in ascending order of difficulty. This literature review aims to identify Brazilian studies that used this scale and to verify if the theory of mind developmental pattern observed by them is also found among Brazilian children. We identified 13 studies, including articles, dissertations and theses published since 2007. Analysis of them suggested that there is much variation in the scale administration in Brazilian studies and in children's performance. In some studies children had better performance in more difficult tasks than in easier tasks, suggesting that the difficulty order proposed is not appropriate to Brazilian children. However, due to methodological issues of these studies, there is not enough evidence to conclude that the theory of mind pattern development is significantly different in Brazilian children or that tasks' order of difficulty is not the same. Thus, the current study can only explain some frailties and point out future directions for research.(AU)

Uso da escala de tarefas em teoria da mente nas pesquisas brasileiras / The use of scaling of theory of mind tasks in brazilian research

A Teoria da mente se refere à capacidade de atribuir estados mentais a si mesmo e aos outros. Wellman e Liu organizaram uma escala para avaliar o desenvolvimento desta capacidade, composta por sete tarefas organizadas em ordem de dificuldade crescente. Esta revisão de literatura teve o objetivo de identificar os estudos brasileiros com esta escala e verificar, se o padrão desenvolvimental da teoria da mente observado pelos autores, também é encontrado entre as crianças brasileiras. Foram localizados 13 estudos, incluindo artigos, dissertações e teses publicados após 2007. Os resultados sugerem uma grande variação na administração da escala nos estudos brasileiros e no desempenho das crianças. Em alguns, as crianças foram melhor em tarefas mais difíceis do que nas mais fáceis, indicando que a ordem de dificuldade proposta pelos autores não é apropriada para as crianças brasileiras. Porém, por questões metodológicas, não há evidências suficientes para concluir que o padrão de desenvolvimento é significativamente diferente ou que a ordem de dificuldade não é a mesma. Assim, este estudo só pode explicar algumas deficiências e apontar caminhos futuros para novas pesquisas sobre a teoria da mente.

Theory of Mind refers to the cognitive ability to attribute mental states to self and others. Wellman and Liu organized a theory of mind scale to assess the development of this ability that is composed by 7 tasks, arranged in ascending order of difficulty. This literature review aims to identify Brazilian studies that used this scale and to verify if the theory of mind developmental pattern observed by them is also found among Brazilian children. We identified 13 studies, including articles, dissertations and theses published since 2007. Analysis of them suggested that there is much variation in the scale administration in Brazilian studies and in children's performance. In some studies children had better performance in more difficult tasks than in easier tasks, suggesting that the difficulty order proposed is not appropriate to Brazilian children. However, due to methodological issues of these studies, there is not enough evidence to conclude that the theory of mind pattern development is significantly different in Brazilian children or that tasks' order of difficulty is not the same. Thus, the current study can only explain some frailties and point out future directions for research.