Citation

Duh S, Paik JH, Miller PH, Gluck SC, Li H, Himelfarb I. Dev. Psychol. 2016; 52(4): 582-591.

Affiliation

Educational Testing Service.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0040068

PMID

26845504

Abstract

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 52(4) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2016-13852-001). In the article, there were two errors in Table 6. The coefficient between WM and Age was incorrectly set as.46; it should have been.46. Further, the coefficient between WM and Gender should be.00 instead of.00. The correct version is provided.]

Cross-cultural research on children's theory of mind (ToM) understanding has raised questions about its developmental sequence and relationship with executive function (EF). The current study examined how ToM develops (using the tasks from Wellman & Liu, 2004) in relation to 2 EF skills (conflict inhibition, working memory) in 997 Chinese preschoolers (ages 3, 4, 5) in Chengdu, China. Compared with prior research with other Chinese and non-Chinese children, some general patterns in development were replicated in this sample. However, the children showed culture-specific reversals in the developmental sequence of ToM. For example, Chengdu children performed differently on the 2 false-belief tasks that were thought to be equivalent. Furthermore, conflict inhibition as well as working memory uniquely predicted ToM performance. We discuss the issues of ToM development as they relate to test items and cross-cultural-and subcultural-differences. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Language: en