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Theory of mind is contagious - you catch it from your sibs

Perner, J., Ruffman, T., Leekam, Sue R. (1994) Theory of mind is contagious - you catch it from your sibs. Child Development, 65 (4). pp. 1228-1238. ISSN 0009-3920. (doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00814.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:19940)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00814...

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.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00814.x
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: O.O. Odanye
Date Deposited: 05 Jul 2009 17:37 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:58 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/19940 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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