Do Developmental Relationships between Theory of Mind, Language, Working Memory, and Executive Functions Show Differences across Early (36-48 months) and Late (53-72 Months) Age Groups?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the developmental relations between theory of mind, language, working memory and executive functions. It was also designed to examine direct relations as well as mediation variables to suggest a theory of mind model. Two false belief tasks and one appearance-reality task were used to measure theory of mind in this study in which a hundred 36-48 months old and a hundred and one 53-72 months old children participated. Beside the measures of theory of mind; language, working memory and executive functions were measured by backward digit span, the Turkish Edition of Test of Early Language Development-Third Edition (TELD-3) and the Dimensional Change Card Sort, respectively. The results of structural equation modeling confirmed different relations between theory of mind, working memory, language and executive functions for three and five year olds. For the theory of mind model of 3-year-olds, a significant proportion of variance in theory of mind is accounted for working memory above language and executive functions. On the contrary, for the theory of mind model of 5-year-olds, a significant proportion of variance in theory of mind is accounted for language above working memory and executive functions. Also for theory of mind model of 3-year-olds, the causal relations between theory of mind and working memory are direct and positive without the mediation of language or executive functions. For theory of mind model of 5-year-olds, the causal relations between theory of mind and language are direct and positive without the mediation of working memory or executive functions.