We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Theory of Mind Is Contagious: You Catch It from Your Sibs.
- Authors
Perner, Josef; Ruffman, Ted; Leekam, Susan R.
- Abstract
This study investigated the relation between family size and "theory of mind." Results from an experiment with 3- and 4-year-olds showed that children from larger families were better able than children from smaller families to predict a story character's mistaken (false-belief based) action. Results from a second experiment on children with exactly 1 sibling failed to show any superiority of older over younger siblings in promoting earlier understanding of belief. The data are interpreted as suggesting that sibling interaction provides a rich "data base" for building a theory of mind, and this is discussed in relation to other studies showing that particular kinds of interaction between sibling and child, or caregiver and child, have a beneficial effect on the understanding of false belief.
- Subjects
PHILOSOPHY of mind; FAMILIES; CHILD psychology; CHILD development; DEVELOPMENTAL psychology; PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY
- Publication
Child Development, 1994, Vol 65, Issue 4, p1228
- ISSN
0009-3920
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/1131316