Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
1999
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MA
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Anne C. Watson.
Committee Co-Chair
Katherine Karraker
Committee Member
Christina Adams
Abstract
The following study explored the role of verbal ability and executive functioning in theory of mind understanding in elementary school children. Scores on measures of language comprehension, verbal ability (sentence memory, and forward digit span), matrix completion, executive functioning (backward digit span), and second-order theory of mind tasks were obtained. Partial correlations of the measures controlling for age revealed verbal ability to be significantly correlated with theory of mind comprehension. A regression analysis demonstrated that auditory language comprehension was the only variable, in addition to age, that explained unique variance in performance on a recursive thinking task. Possible explanations are explored and future directions are recommended.
Recommended Citation
Futoran, Dana Lee, "Theory of mind development and executive functioning in elementary school children" (1999). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 710.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/710