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Theory of mind and executive function during middle childhood across cultures.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Wang, Zhenlin 
Devine, Rory T 
Wong, Keri K 

Abstract

Previous studies with preschoolers have reported "East-West" contrasts in children's executive function (East>West) and theory of mind (East<West). This cross-cultural study with two samples of older children from the United Kingdom and Hong Kong aimed to test competing accounts of these contrasts that focus on either global effects of culture or more specific effects of pedagogical experience. Both groups of children in Hong Kong outperformed the British children on executive function tasks. That is, with respect to executive function, general cultural influences appear to be salient. In contrast, compared with their U.K. counterparts, children attending local schools in Hong Kong (but not those attending British-based international schools in Hong Kong) performed poorly on age-appropriate tests of theory of mind. With respect to theory of mind, therefore, pedagogical experiences appear to be more salient than factors related to the broad contrast between individualist and collectivist cultures. Our findings also contribute to the debate surrounding the relationship between theory of mind and executive function; although scores on these two sets of tasks were robustly correlated within each country, the double dissociation between delayed theory of mind but superior executive function for children in local schools in Hong Kong compared with their U.K. peers suggests that variation in executive function may be necessary but is not sufficient to explain variation in theory of mind.

Description

Keywords

Cross-cultural comparison, Emergence account, Executive function, Middle childhood, Pedagogical experience, Theory of mind, Adolescent, Asian Continental Ancestry Group, Child, Child Development, Child, Preschool, Cross-Cultural Comparison, European Continental Ancestry Group, Executive Function, Facial Recognition, Female, Hong Kong, Humans, Individuality, Male, Psychological Tests, Theory of Mind, United Kingdom, Vocabulary

Journal Title

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1096-0457
1096-0457

Volume Title

149

Publisher

Elsevier
Sponsorship
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J021180/1)
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J005215/1)