The social origins of theory-of-mind : How parental mental state talk nurtures young children's social minds.

本研究旨在探讨母亲的心理状态谈话如何在不同的时间点促进2 - 5岁儿童的心理状态语言和心理理论的发展。母亲在绘本任务中使用的心理状态谈话和儿童在33月龄时测量的心理状态词汇习得预测了儿童在48月龄时对心理理论的理解；这与他们的一般语言发展无关。父母的管教方式，他们对孩子消极和积极行为方面的反应方式，与儿童心理状态词汇的习得有关。这些发现清楚地表明，父母在日常谈话中使用精神状态谈话对培养孩子的社会心理很重要。

This longitudinal study investigated how maternal mental state talk facilitates child mental state language and theory-of-mind development at different points in time forchildren aged between two and five years. Maternal mental state talk used during the picture book task and the child's acquisition of mental state vocabulary measured at 33 months of age predicted the child's understanding of theory-of-mind at 48 months ; this was independent of their general language development. Parental discipline styles, in the ways thatthey respond to their child's negative and positive behaviouralaspects were related to the acquisition of mental state vocabulary in children. These findings clearly suggest that parental use of mental state talk in everyday conversation is important to nurture the child's social mind.