Our next LuCiD seminar is on Tuesday 7th June 2022 (11am UK time). Dr Silke Brandt (Lancaster University) will talk about Cross-cultural differences in the relationship between language and Theory of Mind development.
Abstract: I will present a series of studies investigating the relationship between language, Theory of Mind, and other cognitive skills, across different languages and cultures. In the first study, we have looked at longitudinal relationships between English-speaking children’s understanding of complement clauses (e.g. He said that the sticker was in the red box), mental verbs (e.g. think) and false belief, when controlling for other cognitive and linguistic skills, such as working memory and vocabulary knowledge (Boeg Thomsen et al., 2021). We have also looked at correlations between the understanding of complement clauses, mental verbs, and false belief in Mandarin Chinese and English (Brandt et al., 2016; Brandt et al., under revision). In the last study, we have investigated correlations between English- and Turkish-speaking children’s knowledge of evidentiality, source-monitoring, and false belief (Kandemirci et al., under revision). Together, these studies suggest that there are different linguistic tools that enable children to represent and acquire false belief, and that the availability and choice of these linguistic tools differ across languages and cultures.
How to join the seminar: Our seminars are currently online, free to attend & booking isn't required, just get in touch to request the zoom link or to join the seminar mailing list.