Acquiring"theory of mind"and development of understanding pragmatic language use

本研究旨在探讨大学生心读能力的发展，研究一：40名大学生被分为两组（角色扮演组和非角色扮演组），并被引入一个需要使用心读能力的任务。在每次试验中，参与者在计算机显示器上观看一个4 × 4的架子，其中包含几个熟悉的物体，并被指示雅阁站在架子对面的“管理员”的顺序触摸架子上的物体，并且不能总是看到所有的物体。没有角色扮演的一组比角色扮演的一组犯了更多的错误，并且花了更长的时间来回应触摸屏显示。角色扮演的效果持续了五个街区。这些结果表明，经验与角色扮演将激活mindreading在这个task.Study二：46名小学生进行了三种类型的任务有关的理解另一个人的头脑。在完成这些任务后，参与者被分成两组，并被介绍给一个任务，其中使用读心术是必不可少的。参与者根据与理解另一个人的思想有关的任务的分数被分为两组。不进行角色扮演的一组犯的错误明显多于进行角色扮演的一组。低分组犯的错误明显多于高分组。这些结果表明，角色扮演的经验可能会激活小学儿童的读心术。

The present research aimed at studying development of mindreading.Study 1 : Forty university students were divided into two groups(role play group and no role play group) and they were introduced to a task in which use of mindreading is essential. On each trial participants viewed a 4 X 4 shelf on the computer display which contained several familiar objects, and were instructed to touch an object on the shelf in accord with the order by a"manager"who stood at the opposite side of the shelf and could not always see all of the objects. The no role play group made more mistakes than in the role play group, and spent longer to respond to the touch panel display. The effects of role play lasted during five blocks. These results suggest that experience with role play would activate mindreading in this task.Study 2 : Forty-six primary school students performed three types of tasks related to understanding the mind of another individual. After performing these tasks, participants were divided into two groups and were introduced to a task in which the use of mindreading was essential. Participants were divided into two groups according to scores on the tasks related to understanding the mind of another individual. The no-role-playing group made significantly more mistakes than did the role-playing group. The low-score group made significantly more mistakes than did the high-score group. These results suggest that experience with role-playing may activate mindreading of primary school children.