Abstract
BackgroundThe mind reading ability of children has evoked wide interest, but its relationship with general cognitive abilities remains obscure.MethodsWe studied the relationship between the mind reading ability and general intelligence. Children (N = 105) between 8 to 11 years from educational institutions were assessed for the mind reading ability using Picture Sequencing Task and Unexpected Contents Theory of Mind task. We used Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to rule out psychiatric morbidity. An independent investigator quantified intelligence and adaptive behavior with Binet- Kamat Test of intelligence and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale respectively. We employed bivariate and multivariate statistical tests.ResultsWe demonstrated that mind reading ability was not significantly related to general intelligence or its domains except for the social intelligence after controlling the confounders methodologically and statistically.ConclusionThese findings argue that mind reading skill exists as an independent cognitive domain and has clinical, research as well as educational implications.
Highlights
The mind reading ability of children has evoked wide interest, but its relationship with general cognitive abilities remains obscure
We stratified those 95 children in to three groups of sub average (N = 33), average (N = 31) and above average (N = 31) intelligence. These groups when compared significantly differed on six socio demographic variables namely, chronological age, type of school, monthly income of the family, father's education, mother's education and mother's age. We considered these variables as potential confounders for our analyses
Our findings suggest that Theory of Mind is a distinct cognitive ability and not related to either general intelligence or its domains after controlling the confounders
Summary
The mind reading ability of children has evoked wide interest, but its relationship with general cognitive abilities remains obscure. Can we explain children's ability to understand human minds by their sheer sense of intelligence? The cognitive ability to impute mental states to the self and others meaningfully, to predict and explain the intention of behaviors in terms of mental states is named as Mind reading or Theory of Mind (ToM) [1,2]. ToM's independent existence as a specific cognitive domain is still controversial [11,12]. To resolve this debate studying the relationship between ToM and general cognitive abilities is imperative.
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