Hughes C, Dunn J
Medical Research Council Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London, England.
Dev Psychol. 1998 Sep;34(5):1026-37. doi: 10.1037//0012-1649.34.5.1026.
Developmental changes in children's understanding of mind and emotion and their mental-state talk in conversations with friends were examined in a longitudinal study of 50 children (M age at each time point = 3 years 11 months, 4 years 6 months, 5 years 0 months). Significant and related improvements over time were found for both theory-of-mind task performance and affective perspective taking. Associated with these cognitive developments were quantitative and qualitative changes in children's references to mental states in their conversations with friends. Individual differences in theory of mind, emotion understanding, and mental-state talk were strikingly stable over the 13-month period. Although there were no gender differences in children's task performances, girls showed more frequent and more developed mental-state talk than boys.
在一项对50名儿童（每个时间点的平均年龄分别为3岁11个月、4岁6个月、5岁0个月）的纵向研究中，考察了儿童对心理和情感的理解的发展变化，以及他们在与朋友交谈中的心理状态话语。研究发现，随着时间的推移，心理理论任务表现和情感观点采择都有显著且相关的改善。与这些认知发展相关的是，儿童在与朋友交谈中提及心理状态的数量和质量发生了变化。在13个月的时间里，心理理论、情绪理解和心理状态话语方面的个体差异非常稳定。虽然儿童在任务表现上没有性别差异，但女孩比男孩表现出更频繁、更成熟的心理状态话语。
