The relationship between theory of mind and conservation abilities in children using an active/inactive paradigm

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the development of theory of mind and conservation abilities. A secondary aim explored the development of children's theory of mind and conservation abilities using an inactive (standard) and active (modified) paradigm. It was predicted that there would be an association between the development of conservation and theory of mind abilities, independent of age or verbal ability. The second hypothesis predicted that children would demonstrate superior performance in the modified versions of these tasks when compared to standard conditions. The participants were 78 children aged between 3 years, 3 months and 6 years, 11 months of age who were administered two standard and two modified false belief tasks and three standard and three modified conservation tasks. Children were divided into a younger group and an older group to examine the age at which tasks were completed successfully. No direct association was found between theory of mind and conservation abilities. The findings indicate that any correlation between these cognitive abilities is determined by processes of maturation. There were no significant differences in children's performance on the modified and standard false belief tasks. However, both groups performed significantly better in the modified conservation condition when compared to the standard condition. While active involvement in conservation tasks may explain this difference, changes in context may have also contributed to the effect.