Department of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2021 Nov;74(11):1841-1851. doi: 10.1177/17470218211009159. Epub 2021 Apr 12.
Theory of mind (ToM) is an essential ability for social competence and communication, and it is necessary for understanding behaviours that differ from our own. Research on bilingual children has reported that 3- and 4-year-old bilinguals outperform monolinguals in ToM tasks. Research suggests that adult bilinguals also might outperform monolinguals; nevertheless, this effect has yet to be established. Here, we tested bilingual and monolingual adults on the director task. Results showed that bilingual adults outperformed monolinguals in response to perspective-dependent trials of the director task, but not in response to control trials. This suggests that bilingualism is associated with individuals' ability to take into account the perspective of another person. In addition, the number of cultures that participants were exposed to, regardless of whether the participant was bilingual or not, was also associated with ToM performance. Overall, the findings suggest that linguistic and cultural experience have an impact on ToM.
心理理论（Theory of mind，ToM）是社交能力和沟通的重要能力，也是理解与我们自身行为不同的行为所必需的。对双语儿童的研究报告称，3 岁和 4 岁的双语儿童在 ToM 任务中优于单语儿童。研究表明，成年双语者也可能优于单语者；然而，这一效应尚未得到证实。在这里，我们在导演任务中测试了双语和单语成年人。结果表明，双语成年人在回应依赖于视角的导演任务时表现优于单语者，但在回应控制任务时并非如此。这表明双语与个体考虑他人观点的能力有关。此外，参与者接触的文化数量（无论参与者是否为双语者）也与 ToM 表现相关。总体而言，这些发现表明语言和文化经验对 ToM 有影响。
