Contribution of Language to Building a Theory of Mind

Professor Cheung Him
The Department of Psychology
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to a set of logical interrelations among concepts of mental states. From a cognitive development point of view, this constitutes an ability that needs to be acquired. Two issues interest me in particular concerning the acquisition process. First, what is the role of language in ToM development? Second, what exactly are we talking about when we say "ToM develops"? What components are in there? What kind of changes are involved? It turns out that the two issues may not be independent: Language may or may not play a role, depending on what aspects of ToM are in question. To address these issues, I test young children's language abilities including oral vocabulary, general language-use ability, knowledge about homophones, knowledge about mental verbs, and complementation language. On the ToM side, I administer some more verbal and some less verbal tests. Results generally show that it is the meaning rather than the syntax of language that predicts ToM; how ToM is measured also matters a lot. These data lay a foundation upon which a more complete research programme could be built.