CB-TOM (Children Battery - Theory of Mind): Preliminary results from a new tool for assessing cognitive and affective ToM in children aged three to eleven
Type de matériel :
39
Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others in order to understand and/or predict their behavior. The present study aims to assess, using a single battery, the hierarchical progression of the understanding of simple and complex epistemic and/or affective mental states in a French population. Sixty-eight typically developing children, aged between three and eleven, were assessed with a five-level battery of progressive complexity: early precursors; reflexivity; multiple perspective understanding tasks; first-order false belief (evaluating epistemic and affective aspects); and second-order false belief. The battery scenarios were created using simple cartoons and short stories to reduce working memory involvement. Moreover, responses could be given by pointing at a picture, reducing the expressive language involvement. The preliminary results showed a significant age effect for the total score and the cognitive scale. Further validation of the CB-ToM would allow specific assessment of the affective and cognitive components of ToM. This would help to establish the typical developmental trajectory of ToM and to detect an early deficit or weakness in the population with neurodevelopmental disorders or early brain damage.
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