A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task
The ability to read mental states from subtle facial cues is an important part of Theory of Mind, which can contribute to children's daily life social functioning. Mental state reading performance is influenced by the specific interactions in which it is applied; familiarity with characteristic...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00594/full |
| _version_ | 1811270450767986688 |
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| author | Anna van der Meulen Simone Roerig Doret de Ruyter Pol van Lier Lydia Krabbendam |
| author_facet | Anna van der Meulen Simone Roerig Doret de Ruyter Pol van Lier Lydia Krabbendam |
| author_sort | Anna van der Meulen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The ability to read mental states from subtle facial cues is an important part of Theory of Mind, which can contribute to children's daily life social functioning. Mental state reading performance is influenced by the specific interactions in which it is applied; familiarity with characteristics of these interactions (such as the person) can enhance performance. The aim of this research is to gain insight in this context effect for mental state reading in children, assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) task that originally consists of pictures of adults' eyes. Because of differences between children and adults in roles, development and frequency of interaction, children are more familiar with mental state reading of other children. It can therefore be expected that children's mental state reading depends on whether this is assessed with children's or adults' eyes. A new 14 item version of the RME for children was constructed with pictures of children instead of adults (study 1). This task was used and compared to the original child RME in 6–10 year olds (N = 718, study 2) and 8–14 year olds (N = 182, study 3). Children in both groups performed better on the new RME than on the original RME. Item level findings of the new RME were in line with previous findings on the task and test re-test reliability (in a subgroup of older children, n = 95) was adequate (0.47). This suggests that the RME with children's eyes can assess children's daily life mental state reading and supplement existing ToM tasks. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:02:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d45f6478cf9a49ae86ecd589bec4edbc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T22:02:08Z |
| publishDate | 2017-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d45f6478cf9a49ae86ecd589bec4edbc2022-12-22T03:15:06ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782017-04-01810.3389/fpsyg.2017.00594245906A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes TaskAnna van der Meulen0Simone Roerig1Doret de Ruyter2Pol van Lier3Lydia Krabbendam4Section of Clinical Developmental Psychology and Research Institute LEARN!, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdam, NetherlandsSection of Clinical Developmental Psychology and Research Institute LEARN!, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdam, NetherlandsSection of Research and Theory in Education and Research Institute LEARN!, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University RotterdamRotterdam, NetherlandsSection of Clinical Developmental Psychology and Research Institute LEARN!, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamAmsterdam, NetherlandsThe ability to read mental states from subtle facial cues is an important part of Theory of Mind, which can contribute to children's daily life social functioning. Mental state reading performance is influenced by the specific interactions in which it is applied; familiarity with characteristics of these interactions (such as the person) can enhance performance. The aim of this research is to gain insight in this context effect for mental state reading in children, assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) task that originally consists of pictures of adults' eyes. Because of differences between children and adults in roles, development and frequency of interaction, children are more familiar with mental state reading of other children. It can therefore be expected that children's mental state reading depends on whether this is assessed with children's or adults' eyes. A new 14 item version of the RME for children was constructed with pictures of children instead of adults (study 1). This task was used and compared to the original child RME in 6–10 year olds (N = 718, study 2) and 8–14 year olds (N = 182, study 3). Children in both groups performed better on the new RME than on the original RME. Item level findings of the new RME were in line with previous findings on the task and test re-test reliability (in a subgroup of older children, n = 95) was adequate (0.47). This suggests that the RME with children's eyes can assess children's daily life mental state reading and supplement existing ToM tasks.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00594/fullmental state readingreading the mind in the eyescontextual embeddednesschildren's daily lifetheory of mind |
| spellingShingle | Anna van der Meulen Simone Roerig Doret de Ruyter Pol van Lier Lydia Krabbendam A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task Frontiers in Psychology mental state reading reading the mind in the eyes contextual embeddedness children's daily life theory of mind |
| title | A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task |
| title_full | A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task |
| title_fullStr | A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task |
| title_short | A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task |
| title_sort | comparison of children s ability to read children s and adults mental states in an adaptation of the reading the mind in the eyes task |
| topic | mental state reading reading the mind in the eyes contextual embeddedness children's daily life theory of mind |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00594/full |
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