School of Education, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2020 Jun;194:104813. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104813. Epub 2020 Feb 22.
Theory of mind has received intensive attention in research as an important skill to develop. Furthermore, recent evidence indicates its role in discourse comprehension. In the current study, we examined the mediating role of theory of mind in the relations of foundational language and cognitive skills (working memory, attentional control, vocabulary, and grammatical knowledge) to discourse comprehension using the direct and indirect effects model of text comprehension and production (Kim, 2016) as a theoretical framework, and using longitudinal data from kindergarten to Grade 2. Structural equation model results showed that theory of mind partially mediated the relations in both grades, and the effects (standardized regression weights) were similar in kindergarten and Grade 2. Interestingly, the relations of language and cognitive skills to theory of mind differed in kindergarten versus Grade 2. Language and cognitive skills had moderate to strong longitudinal stability, and these skills in kindergarten were indirectly related to discourse comprehension in Grade 2 via the language and cognitive skills in Grade 2. These results support the mediating role of theory of mind as well as the nature of structural and longitudinal relations among language and cognitive skills and to discourse comprehension.
心理理论在研究中受到了广泛关注，被认为是一种需要培养的重要技能。此外，最近的证据表明它在语篇理解中发挥着作用。在本研究中，我们使用文本理解和生成的直接和间接效应模型（Kim，2016）作为理论框架，利用从幼儿园到二年级的纵向数据，检验了心理理论在基础语言和认知技能（工作记忆、注意力控制、词汇和语法知识）与语篇理解关系中的中介作用。结构方程模型的结果表明，心理理论在两个年级都部分中介了这些关系，而且在幼儿园和二年级的效果（标准化回归权重）是相似的。有趣的是，语言和认知技能与心理理论的关系在幼儿园和二年级是不同的。语言和认知技能具有中等至较强的纵向稳定性，这些技能在幼儿园与二年级的语篇理解之间存在间接关系，这种间接关系是通过二年级的语言和认知技能来实现的。这些结果支持心理理论的中介作用，以及语言和认知技能与语篇理解之间的结构和纵向关系的本质。
