Teoria da mente : papel de componentes executivos, pragmático-inferenciais, idade, tipo de escola e desempenho escolar

Abstract

The theory of mind (ToM), known as the ability to infer beliefs, desires, knowledge, behaviors of self and others, is a complex and essential cognitive component for social adaptation throughout human development. There is a vast theoretical field aiming to understand this mechanism and its relation with cognitive, social components, that concentrates mainly in the preschool age and only marginally in the later years. Thus, the purpose of this research, divided into two studies, was to verify the relationship between ToM with executive functions (FE), pragmatic-inferential processing, school performance, age and type of school (Study 1), promoting preliminary normative data for ToM of the subtest Theory of Mind in Complex Situations and Emotions (Study 2). The study included 98 children in typical development with a mean age of 7.47 (SD = 1.01), students from public and private schools in the city of Porto Alegre. They were examined with a battery of neuropsychological tasks and school performance. In Study 1, a network analysis was conducted to verify the partial correlations between ToM and the other investigated constructs. We found direct direct positive partial correlations between ToM with pragmatic-inferential processing, working memory and partial negative direct negative correlation between ToM and type of school. There were also indirect partial correlations (mediated by another variable) with ToM, namely: the positive intensity correlations of school-type with age and pragmatic-inferential processing with cognitive flexibility; the weak positive correlations of working memory with cognitive flexibility and type of school with inhibitory control; the negative correlation of moderate intensity between type of school and school performance; and the negative negative correlation between working memory and school performance. In study 2, to verify if there was effect of age and type of school in the measurement of ToM, a two-way ANOVA followed by post hoc of Tukey was performed. There were significant differences in ToM performance according to age (6 = 7 = 8 <9; 7 = 8 <9; 8 = 9) and type of school (private> public). Such findings have some implications for preventive neuropsychological assessment and intervention for children in typical development, as there appear to be cognitive subprocesses underlying pragmatics, theory of mind and working memory, with age effect mediating its relation to school performance. It is suggested that future studies seek to verify the relationship of the investigated variables through subscores of different neuropsychological instruments in larger samples of children from public and private schools. Preliminary performance standards provide initial reference to identify and map the development of verbal ToM in children 6 to 9 years of age, with identification of false positives by immaturity of the components examined.