Does my counterpart know what I know? What does the other think what I think? Even in preschool age children develop a basic theory of mind, i.e. the ability to assess the mental states of other people. A five-year long-term study now shows how these skills develop in primary school age. For complex social challenges – such as understanding sarcasm, being able to read emotions in the eyes and recognizing a faux pas – both intelligence and experience play a role.
An adult puts a toy in a box in front of a child and then leaves the room. In his absence, someone else hides the toy in the closet instead. Where will the adult look first after his return? Many three-year-olds can already solve tasks like these. They realize that what others know may differ from their own knowledge and from reality – the basis of a theory of mind. More complex social-cognitive skills, on the other hand, only develop in the course of primary school.
Recognize false beliefs and bluffs
In a long-term study, Christopher Osterhaus from the University of Vechta and Susanne Koerber from the Freiburg University of Education have investigated when exactly children acquire which skills and on which factors their understanding depends. To this end, they accompanied 161 children over five years. “We interviewed the children for the first time in kindergarten and then accompanied them through to the end of elementary school,” explains Osterhaus. “We measured their skills development every year. In this way, it is possible to track very precisely when development steps occur and what they depend on. “
The children were given various test tasks by the researchers in which they were asked to assess social situations. For example, they heard the story of a captured soldier who is asked by his enemies where he is hiding his weapons. He tells them the actual hiding place. The children should now assess why he is doing this. Around two thirds of the first graders and three quarters of the second graders correctly recognized that the soldier was speculating that his enemies would assume he was lying and that this was precisely why he was not looking for his weapons in the named location. Of the kindergarten children, on the other hand, less than one in four drew this conclusion.
Intent or mistake?
“Most children reach a milestone in the development of the Theory of Mind when they are around seven years old,” explain Osterhaus and Koerber. At this age they come to the conceptual insight that mental states can influence one another and that people think about how others think about their thinking. This knowledge forms the basis for children to be able to classify certain social situations and in this way to gain further experiences that make it easier for them to understand the thoughts of others.
This experience seems to be sufficient for some other skills. For example, in the story of a girl who accidentally spilled a surprise party, nearly 90 percent of nine-year-olds realized that it was a faux pas and not on purpose. “This ability seems to go back to a relatively simple process in which children more or less automatically perceive and evaluate what happens in their social environment. And the more experience you have in this, the better this assessment seems to work, ”says Osterhaus. When children are able to recognize a faux pas depends on the age at which they reached the fundamental milestone in understanding others – that is, how long they have already had time to enrich their theory of mind with further experience.
Intelligence and experience determine development
Other skills, on the other hand, do not seem to develop primarily through more experience. For example, the understanding that two people can interpret the same information differently is instead related to the intelligence of the students: Those who achieved better results in an intelligence test of the researchers at the age of six were more likely to solve a corresponding task at the age of nine. The ability to recognize irony and sarcasm or read emotions in the eyes was also correlated with intelligence.
From the researchers’ point of view, this suggests that the children have to deal explicitly with these topics cognitively. So you need to learn to understand the complexities of how our thinking works, and also to develop a theory of the patterns in which complex social interactions occur.
Task for parents and teachers
Osterhaus emphasizes that the results are also relevant for parents and teachers. In order to optimally support the children in understanding complex thoughts in human interaction, they should discuss appropriate situations with them and explain to them what the participants think and why. “We should also teach children the right words,” says Osterhaus. “If an elementary school child cannot read from the area around the eyes of a person that this person is assertive, it is likely because they have no concept of the condition.”
In addition to explicit support, it is important to enable the children to have a wide range of social experiences. “Due to Corona, this is currently only the case to a limited extent,” said Osterhaus. “We have found that children have a lot of potential to develop their social-cognitive abilities by the end of elementary school. Personality development is a learning goal of schools. And especially when it comes to conflicts, it is important that children have the tools they need to empathize with others and effectively resolve conflicts. There are good training programs that could easily be implemented in elementary school. Especially now in the course of the corona pandemic, this might be a valuable approach. “
Source: Christopher Osterhaus (University of Vechta) and Susanne Koerber (Freiburg University of Education), Child Development, doi: 10.1111 / cdev.13627