Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Introspection
- Creators: Spinrad, Tracy
Description
Understanding sources of knowledge (e.g., seeing leads to knowing) is an important ability in young children’s theory of mind development. The research presented here measured if children were better at reporting their own versus another person’s knowledge states, which would indicate the presence of introspection. Children had to report when the person (self or other) had knowledge or ignorance after looking into one box and not looking into another box. In Study 1 (N = 66), 3- and 4-year-olds found the other-version of the task harder than the self-version whereas 5-year-olds performed near ceiling on both versions. This effect replicated in Study 2 (N = 43), which included familiarization trials to make sure children understood the question format. This finding is in support of the presence of introspection in preschool-aged children. In the same studies, children also showed evidence for theorizing about their own and others knowledge states in a guessing task (Study 1) and in true and false belief tasks (Study 2). These findings together indicate both introspection and theorizing are present during young children's theory of mind development.
ContributorsGonzales, Christopher (Author) / Fabricius, William (Thesis advisor) / Spinrad, Tracy (Committee member) / Kobes, Bernard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
A cornerstone of children’s socio-cognitive development is understanding that others can have knowledge, thoughts, and perceptions that differ from one’s own. Preschool-aged children often have difficulty with this kind of social understanding, i.e., they lack an explicit theory of mind. The goal of this dissertation was to examine the role mental state language as a developmental mechanism of children’s early understanding of their own mental states (i.e., their introspective ability). Specifically, it was hypothesized that (1) parents’ ability to recognize and appropriately label their children’s mental states and (2) children’s linguistic ability to distinguish between their mental states shapes the development of children’s introspective ability. An initial prediction of the first hypothesis is that parents should recognized differences in the development of children’s self- and other-understanding in order to better help their children’s introspective development. In support of this prediction, parents (N = 400, Mage = 58 months, Range = 28-93 months) reported that children’s understanding of their own knowledge was greater than children’s understanding of others’ knowledge. A prediction of the second hypothesis is that children’s linguistic ability to distinguish between and appropriately label their own mental states should determine their ability to make fined grained judgments of mental states like certainty. In support of this prediction, children’s (N = 197, Mage = 56 months, Range = 36-82 months) ability to distinguish between their own knowledge and ignorance states was associated children’s ability to engage in uncertainty monitoring. Together, these findings provide support for the association between children’s linguistic environment and ability and their introspective development.
ContributorsGonzales, Christopher Ryan (Author) / Fabricius, William V. (Thesis advisor) / Spinrad, Tracy (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Horne, Zachary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This thesis was an analysis of items in the Late Adolescent Home Observation for Measure of the Environment (LA HOME) after the first wave of N = 138 interviews. The purpose of this project was to learn how to utilize a statistical software such as SPSS to analyze items and interpret results. Frequency analysis, inter-rater reliability (IRR), correlation analysis, internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha, and feedback from research assistants were considered when deciding which items should be eliminated from the measure. After running these analyses, ten items were suggested for deletion including: clean, adolescent's room allows for privacy, reference materials, news, family encourages adolescent to think independently, community service, parent knows where adolescent spends time, weekly household responsibilities, school/career planning, and dentist. Future interviews generating a larger sample size as well as discussions and subsequent revisions to the manual will clarify additional items that may be eliminated from the final version of the instrument.
ContributorsMiller, Ava Kathryn (Author) / Bradley, Robert (Thesis director) / Spinrad, Tracy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2015-05