Theory of mind and preschoolers' understanding of implicit causality in verbs: A comparison between serbian and hungarian children

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of theory of mind, age and mother tongue on the implicit causality effect in preschoolers from two different language backgrounds. Serbian and Hungarian native speakers aged 3-7 years participated in the study. After taking part in a Theory of Mind task, children were presented verbs in simple "Subject verb Object" sentences describing interactions between two participants, with the interactions being based on emotional, mental or visual experiences. Children were asked " Why does S verb O?" and their responses were categorized as containing an inference about the sentence-S or the sentence-O. The results show that Theory of Mind is a significant factor in the emergence of implicit causality, with age of participants and mother tongue being also contributing to explaining patterns of implicit causality. © 2010 by the Serbian Psychological Association.