How do thoughts, emotions, and decisions align? A new way to examine theory of mind during middle childhood and beyond

Abstract

The current study examined 4- to 10-year-olds' and adults' (N=280) tendency to connect people's thoughts, emotions, and decisions into valence-matched mental state triads (thought valence=emotion valence=decision valence; e.g., anticipate something bad+feel worried+avoid) and valence-matched mental state dyads (thought-emotion, thought-decision, and emotion-decision). Participants heard vignettes about focal characters who re-encountered individuals who had previously harmed them twice, helped them twice, or both harmed and helped them. Baseline trials involved no past experience. Children and adults predicted the focal characters' thoughts (anticipate something good or bad), emotions (feel happy or worried), and decisions (go near or stay away). Results showed significant increases between 4 and 10years of age in the formation of valence-matched mental state triads and dyads, with thoughts and emotions most often aligned by valence. We also documented age-related improvement in awareness that uncertain situations elicit less valence-consistent mental states than more certain situations, with females expecting weaker coherence among characters' thoughts, emotions, and decisions than males. Controlling for age and sex, individuals with stronger executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) predicted more valence-aligned mental states. These findings add to the emerging literature on development and individual differences in children's reasoning about mental states and emotions during middle childhood and beyond.

Keywords: Emotion understanding; Executive function; Individual differences; Middle childhood; Sex differences; Theory of mind.

Figure 1

Example of a PN trial. After hearing the story, participants were asked three forced-choice questions: (1) “How do you think [Megan] feels right now? Does she feel worried or happy?” (2) “Does [Megan] think that [the short-haired girl] is going to do something good or bad?” (3) “What do you think [Megan] will do next? Do you think she will she stay away from [the short-haired girl] or go near [the short-haired girl]?”

Figure 2

All possible valence-matched and valence-mismatched triads and dyads.

Figure 3

Proportion of trials participants formed valence-matched mental state triads. NN = two negative past events, PP = two positive past events, NP = positive then a negative past event, PN = positive then a negative past event, Baseline = no past experience. Error bars represent standard errors. All age groups formed valence-matched mental state triads above chance (.25).

Figure 4

Proportion of trials participants made valence-matched mental state dyads: (a) Thought-emotion dyads; (b) Emotion-decision dyads; (c) Thought-decision dyads. NN = two negative past events, PP = two positive past events, NP = positive then a negative past event, PN = positive then a negative past event, Baseline = no past experience. Error bars represent standard errors. All age groups formed valence-matched dyads above chance (.50).