Theory of mind and cold versus hot executive functions in preschool-aged children

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the ability to represent mental states and the development of cold versus hot executive functions (EF) in preschool-aged children. The participants were a group of 44 children between the ages from 3 to 4 years. There were used false-belief tasks (Gopnik & Astington 1988; Wimmer & Perner 1983) as the measures of theory of mind (ToM) development, Dimensional Change Card Sort (Frye et al. 1995) as a measure of cool EF, and The Children’s Gambling Task (Kerr & Zelazo 2004) as a measure of hot EF. Considering the whole group of children, it was found a stronger relationship between the level of ToM and cold EF comparing to hot EF. But data obtained in the age groups indicated the differences in the pattern of correlations. The level of ToM was stronger connected to the cold EF in the group of 4-year-olds, but in the group of 3-year-olds there was a trend towards the stronger relationship between ToM and hot EF. The implications of the results for the problem of relation between the development of ToM and processes of conscious control of thought and action are discussed.

Theory of mind and cold versus hot executive functions in preschool-aged children

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the ability to represent mental states and the development of cold versus hot executive functions (EF) in preschool-aged children. The participants were a group of 44 children between the ages from 3 to 4 years. There were used false-belief tasks (Gopnik & Astington 1988; Wimmer & Perner 1983) as the measures of theory of mind (ToM) development, Dimensional Change Card Sort (Frye et al. 1995) as a measure of cool EF, and The Children’s Gambling Task (Kerr & Zelazo 2004) as a measure of hot EF. Considering the whole group of children, it was found a stronger relationship between the level of ToM and cold EF comparing to hot EF. But data obtained in the age groups indicated the differences in the pattern of correlations. The level of ToM was stronger connected to the cold EF in the group of 4-year-olds, but in the group of 3-year-olds there was a trend towards the stronger relationship between ToM and hot EF. The implications of the results for the problem of relation between the development of ToM and processes of conscious control of thought and action are discussed.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the ability to represent mental states and the development of cold versus hot executive functions (EF) in preschool-aged children. The participants were a group of 44 children between the ages from 3 to 4 years. There were used false-belief tasks (Gopnik & Astington 1988; Wimmer & Perner 1983) as the measures of theory of mind (ToM) development, Dimensional Change Card Sort (Frye et al. 1995) as a measure of cool EF, and The Children’s Gambling Task (Kerr & Zelazo 2004) as a measure of hot EF. Considering the whole group of children, it was found a stronger relationship between the level of ToM and cold EF comparing to hot EF. But data obtained in the age groups indicated the differences in the pattern of correlations. The level of ToM was stronger connected to the cold EF in the group of 4-year-olds, but in the group of 3-year-olds there was a trend towards the stronger relationship between ToM and hot EF. The implications of the results for the problem of relation between the development of ToM and processes of conscious control of thought and action are discussed.