Centre for Developmental Science, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK; School of Psychology, College of Health and Life Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK.
Centre for Developmental Science, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2022 Oct;222:105476. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105476. Epub 2022 Jun 13.
Reading fiction is argued to have benefits for our understanding of others' thoughts, feelings and desires, referred to as 'theory of mind'(ToM). We aimed to test this assumption by examining whether children's reading experience is longitudinally associated with later ToM. We examined reading experience and ToM in 236 children between the ages of 11-13 years. Participants were asked to report on their time spent reading both fiction and non-fiction at ages 11 and 13, ToM was measured at age 13. Verbal ability, reading comprehension, and reading motivation were included as control variables in all analyses. Results showed that children's self-reported fiction, but not their non-fiction reading was associated with ToM. Further, the association was concurrent but not longitudinal: fiction reading and ToM at age 13 were associated but fiction reading at age 11 did not predict ToM at age 13. Our findings motivate further research on what types of reading materials might be beneficial, and the level of exposure to fiction that is needed for measurable benefits for later ToM.
阅读小说被认为有助于我们理解他人的思想、感受和欲望，这被称为“心理理论”（ToM）。我们旨在通过检查儿童的阅读经验是否与以后的 ToM 存在纵向关联来检验这一假设。我们在 11-13 岁的 236 名儿童中检查了阅读经验和 ToM。参与者被要求报告他们在 11 岁和 13 岁时阅读小说和非小说的时间，在 13 岁时测量 ToM。在所有分析中，言语能力、阅读理解和阅读动机都被作为控制变量纳入。结果表明，儿童自我报告的小说阅读，而不是非小说阅读，与 ToM 有关。此外，这种关联是同期的，而不是纵向的：13 岁时的小说阅读和 ToM 相关，但 11 岁时的小说阅读并不能预测 13 岁时的 ToM。我们的研究结果促使人们进一步研究哪种类型的阅读材料可能有益，以及需要多大程度的小说阅读才能对以后的 ToM 产生可衡量的益处。
