Theory of Mind and Executive Function in Korean Children (마음이론과 실행기능의 발달 및 관계: 한국아동 자료를 중심으로 )

Hyeon Jin Lee (이현진)

Theory of Mind and Executive Function in Korean Children

THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
2011, 24(4), pp.99-113
Publisher : The Korean Society For Developmental Psychology
Research Area : Social Science > Psychological Science

Hyeon Jin Lee ¹

¹영남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study examined the development of theory of mind and executive function, and then the relation between them in Korean children. Theory of mind was measured by 3 kinds of ToM tasks (discrepant belief tasks, false belief tasks, appearance-reality tasks). Executive function was measured by 3 types of tasks (conflict inhibition tasks, delayed inhibition tasks, working memory tasks). The finding indicated that 3-year-olds understand the discrepant beliefs, but not false beliefs and appearance-reality. There was a developmental change between age 3 and 5 in the latter tasks. Korean children showed good performance in inhibition tasks from the early age, while there was a developmental change between age 3 and 4 in the development of working memory. The overall performance on executive function tasks was better in Korean children than in western children. Executive function measures were not correlated with ToM measures. The results suggested that executive function does not seem to play a role in the development of theory of mind in Korean children.

KEYWORDS

theory of mind, discrepant belief, false belief, appearance-reality, executive function, conflict inhibition, delayed inhibition, working memory

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

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