Mother Child Conversations about Desires and Beliefs P. Brooke Nelson, Lauren B. Adamson, Roger Bake

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Mother Child Conversations about Desires and
BeliefsP. Brooke Nelson, Lauren B. Adamson,
Roger Bakeman, Deborah F. Deckner
Department of PsychologyGeorgia State
UniversityAtlanta, GA 30303
Center for Research on Atypical Development and
Learning at GSU
Theory of Mind Two standardized false belief
tasks were administered at 42, 54, and 66 months
changed location and misleading container tasks.
At each age, children were scored 0, 1, or 2 if
they answered the questions correctly for
neither, one, or both tasks.
Introduction Discourse about mental states has
been shown to facilitate childrens
under-standing of minds, but the development of
such discourse has yet to be fully described. We
sought to characterize depth (rudimentary vs.
elaborated) and structure (scaffolded vs.
connected) of mother-child conversations about
beliefsand, for comparison, about desiresin
order to determine how depth and structure of
conversation changes from 42 to 66 months as
children develop a theory of mind. We
hypothesized that from 42 to 66 months of age
childrens conversations about beliefs would
become more elaborated generally (less
rudimentary), and more elaborated and connected
specifically (less scaffolded) likewise for
conversations about desires. We also hypothesized
that the ability to pass false belief tasks would
be associated with the amount of time spent in
elaborated-connected conversation about beliefs,
but not desires.
Design Children were observed during the
Communication Play Protocol at 42, 54, and 66
months of age interacting with their mothers.
The two conditions used here afforded
conversation about desires (e.g., foods various
people preferred) and beliefs (e.g., what an
absent person might understand about hidden toys).
Results II At 42 months of age19 children scored
0, 19 scored 1, and 5 scored 2 on the false
belief tasks. Similar numbers were 6, 12, and 25
at 54 months and 0, 2, and 41 at 66 monthsso by
54 mo over half and by 66 mo essentially all
children passed both tasks. As expected,
associations of false belief scores at 42 and 54
months with desire scores at all ages were small
and not significant. Likewise, associations of
false belief scores at 54 months with belief
scores were small and not significant. However,
children who passed both false belief scores at
42 months tended to score higher on belief scores
at all ages, significantly so at 66 months (see
Fig. 2). (Note. Per t-test, mean differences
between those who passed 01 versus 2 tasks were
significant, p and elabcon belief at 66 mo, and elabcon belief
at 54 mo).
Results I Mean percents of time spent focusing on
beliefs generally, elaborated beliefs
specifically, and elaborated beliefs in connected
conversations are shown in Table 1 and Figure 1
also for desires. Positive linear trends for
elaborated beliefs, elaborated beliefs in
connected conversation, and elaborated desires
supported our hypotheses regarding the
development of childrens conversations.
Coding During the Belief Condition, trained and
reliable observers coded the depth of the childs
attention to beliefs as Rudimentary Child
actively attends to her own or someone elses
perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, or
pretense, but this insight appears immature
and/or transitory (e.g., Mom, look at this)
or Elaborated Child displays mature
understanding of her own or someone elses
perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, or
pretense. (e.g., We know where the ball is, but
she does not). Likewise, during the Desire
Condition, trained and reliable observers coded
the depth of the childs attention to desires
as Rudimentary Child actively attends to the
desires or emotions of self or others without
offering any explanation for these perspectives
(e.g., I love the dog) or Elaborated Child
actively attends to the desires or emotions of
self or others, and the desire is elaborated,
explained, or contrasted (e.g., I want to eat the
spaghetti because it tastes really good). In both
conditions, the conversational structure was
coded as Scaffolded The structure and focus on
the conversation is largely determined and/or
maintained by the mothers efforts or Connected
The child takes a more active role both
partners seem to contribute equally to the
conversation.
Figure 2. Percent of time discussing belief
during the belief condition,separately for
children who passed 01 vs. 2 false belief tasks
at 42 mo.
Discussion Our results suggest that there are
significant changes in mother-child conversations
about beliefs and desires from 42 to 66 months.
The depth of childrens focus increased over
time. Moreover, at least when focusing on
beliefs, children became increasingly active
conversational partners. Especially intriguing is
the finding that by 54 months, the age when
children typically begin to pass Theory of Mind
tasks, children were often engaging in extended
connected conversations about beliefs.
References Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R.,
Deckner, D. F. (2004). The development of
symbol-infused joint engagement. Child
Development, 75, 11711187. Nelson, P. B.,
Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R. (under
revision). Toddlers Joint Engagement
Experience Facilitates Preschoolers
Acquisition of Theory of Mind. Email
pnelson3_at_student.gsu.edu
Participants The present study includes 43 dyads
from a larger longitudinal study of joint
engagement (Adamson, Bakeman, Deckner, 2004)
who were observed at 42, 54, and 66 months of age.
Acknowledgments This research is funded in part
by a grant from the National Institutes of Child
Health and Human Development. We thank Alicia
Brady, Kim Munsterman, Pamela Rutherford, and
Janis Sayre for their contributions. Presented at
SRCD, Boston, MA, March 2007.
Figure 1. Percent of time discussing belief
during the belief condition and desire during the
desire condition by depth of discussion.