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Item Earlier false belief understanding predicts later lie-telling behavior in preschool children, but not vice versa(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2024-11) Wang Z; Gao X; Shao YYoung children's lie-telling behavior is associated with their theory of mind (ToM) development. However, current evidence is primarily based on cross-sectional studies, with very little longitudinal evidence on the causal relation between the two constructs. The current study provided much-needed cross-lagged longitudinal evidence on the association between ToM and lying in young children. Adopting a short-term longitudinal design, we tested 104 normally developing children's (64 boys, M = 54.0 months) false belief understanding and lie-telling behaviors three times at 4-month intervals. Results showed the cross-lagged model fit the data well. Lie-telling behaviors exhibited moderate stability across the three time points, while ToM exhibited moderate stability between the first two time points but not between Time 2 and Time 3. Earlier false belief understanding significantly predicted children's later lie-telling behavior, controlling for family socioeconomic status, child age, gender, only child status, and Time 1 verbal ability and inhibitory control. On the contrary, earlier lie-telling did not predict later false beliefs understanding. We concluded that earlier false belief understanding predicts later lie-telling behavior in preschool children, but not vice versa.Item Picture book reading improves children's learning understanding.(John Wiley and Sons Limited, 2024-02-28) Wang Z; Shao YMental state reasoning is an integral part of children's teaching and learning understanding. This study investigated whether a picture book reading approach focusing on mental state discourse and contrasting perspectives in a preschool classroom setting would improve children's teaching and learning understanding and school readiness. In total, 104 children from four classrooms aged between 46 and 64 months (53 girls, M = 54.03 months, SD = 3.68) participated in the study. Half of the classrooms were randomly assigned to an experimental group where teachers read picture books rich in mental state discourse and engaged in intensive discussions with children for eight weeks. Children's false belief understanding and teaching and learning understanding were measured before and after the eight-week period. The result revealed that picture book reading improved children's learning understanding with a medium effect size, controlling for demographic variables, children's verbal ability, inhibition, and initial false belief understanding. The experimental group children further demonstrated more advanced school readiness 18 months after the intervention ended in a follow-up study using a teacher questionnaire.Item When a Circle Becomes the Letter O: Young Children's Conceptualization of Learning and Its Relation With Theory of Mind Development.(Frontiers Media S.A., 2021-01-14) Wang Z; Frye DA; Bright PIn two independent yet complementary studies, the current research explored the developmental changes of young children's conceptualization of learning, focusing the role of knowledge change and learning intention, and its association with their developing theory of mind (ToM) ability. In study 1, 75 children between 48 and 86 months of age (M = 65.45, SD = 11.45, 36 girls) judged whether a character with or without a genuine knowledge change had learned. The results showed that younger children randomly attributed learning between genuine knowledge change and accidental coincidence that did not involve knowledge change. Children's learning judgments in familiar contexts improved with age and correlated with their ToM understanding. However, the correlation was no longer significant once age was held constant. Another sample of 72 children aged between 40 and 90 months (M = 66.87, SD = 11.83, 31 girls) participated in study 2, where children were asked to judge whether the story protagonists intended to learn and whether they eventually learned. The results suggested that children over-attributed learning intention to discovery and implicit learning. Stories with conflict between the learning intention and outcome appeared to be most challenging for children. Children's intention judgment was correlated with their ToM understanding, and ToM marginally predicted intention judgment when the effect of age was accounted for. The implication of the findings for school readiness was discussed. Training studies and longitudinal designs in the future are warranted to better understand the relation between ToM development and children's learning understanding.Item Is the maternal 'babybrain' adaptive? : examining theory of mind, emotional state, and the association with attachment over pregnancy and the postpartum : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand(Massey University, 2023) Spill, E. KatePregnancy is a time of great maternal neuroplasticity with associated cognitive and behaviour change. Cognitive decrements are seen in memory, executive functioning, and overall cognitive functioning, and cognitive enhancements in facial and affect processing. It has been proposed that cognitive enhancements may come at the cost of cognitive decrements, due to the brain restructuring in a manner which prioritises adaptive caregiving-related functions. Hoekzema et al. (2016) found significant reductions in the grey matter (GM) volume of first-time pregnant women in the Theory of Mind (ToM) network. On the basis that reduced GM is an indicator of better processing efficiency and specialisation, they proposed that pregnancy may be a sensitive period where ToM may be enhanced to support the maternal-infant attachment relationship. ToM is a multidimensional construct which describes the capacity to understand the mental state of ourselves and others. It has been investigated in maternal-infant attachment as maternal mind-mindedness and parental reflective function. There are very few studies which have investigated individual differences in ToM over the perinatal period and its link to attachment. Objective: The primary aim of this research is to investigate ToM capacity over the perinatal period and its relationship to attachment. Method: Study 1 was a quasi-experimental, between-groups design comparing third trimester primiparous women’s performance on four ToM tasks with that of nulliparous control women. Participants (n=133; 68 pregnant) completed four computer-based ToM tasks: Reading the Mind in the Eyes-Revised (RMET), Hinting, Mind-mindedness, and the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ). Prenatal attachment was measured with the Prenatal Attachment Inventory-Revised (PAI-R) and emotional state with the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). It was hypothesised that: ToM would be enhanced in pregnancy; ToM would be associated with pre-natal attachment; emotional state (depression, anxiety, stress) would be negatively associated with both ToM and attachment. Results: Study 1 found no between group differences between pregnant and control participants on ToM performance. In the presence of greater depression and stress (both groups) and anxiety (pregnancy only) there was significantly more uncertainty about the mental states of self and others, an aspect of reflective function ToM. ToM in pregnancy was not consistently associated with prenatal attachment. Method: Study 2 compared ToM measured in pregnancy with caregiving ToM (Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire; PRFQ) and maternal-infant attachment (Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale; MPAS) when mothers and babies were 4-6 months postpartum (n=55). It was hypothesised that ToM in pregnancy would predict parental reflective function and attachment; and that parental reflective function in the postpartum would be concurrently associated with maternal-infant attachment. Emotional state was expected to be negatively associated with both parental reflective function and attachment. Results: ToM in pregnancy had no consistent relationship to postpartum ToM (PRFQ) or attachment (MPAS). In postpartum women, the presence of poor and rigid caregiver ToM (PRFQ-Pre-Mentalising Modes) was associated with poorer quality of attachment and greater hostility in attachment (both MPAS subscales; r > .3). To explore this relationship further two mediation models were computed. These revealed that under conditions of greater depression or stress, mothers were more likely to use poorer, more rigid, and inappropriate ToM when they reflected on the inner experiences of their baby and themselves and, taken together, these factors were linked to significantly greater levels of hostility in the attachment relationship and poorer overall attachment. For each mediation model, stress and depression accounted for over a third of the basic relationship between caregiver ToM and attachment. Conclusions: (1) Contrary to Hoekzema et al. (2016), there is no evidence of general ToM enhancement in late pregnancy nor of a consistent relationship between ToM capacity in pregnancy and postpartum attachment. However, given that pregnant women were also no worse than control women, this might offer preliminary support for a cognitive prioritisation of ToM over general cognition in pregnancy. (2) In postpartum women there was a significant moderate positive relationship between parental reflective function and aspects of maternal-infant attachment. Levels of depression and stress were linked to poorer reflective function and attachment and accounted for over a third of the variance. This research is the first to examine ToM over the perinatal period using multiple measures and to examine the relationship to attachment mediated by mood state.