Training Experiment On Counterfactual Thinking And Theory Of Mind For 3-to 5-year-old Preschoolers

Oversea research indicated that there are significant correlations between preschoolers' performance on counterfactual thinking task and theory of mind task (the unexpected location task, the unexpected content task and the decepted task). Experiment results from Riggs et al. and Guajardo et al. found that individual performance in counterfactual thinking account for theory of mind understanding. They suggested that the two tasks involve preschoolers act in a way inconsistent with reality, counterfactual thinking of preschoolers prognosticates their theory of mind understanding (false belief understanding). Yet at present, there is no experimental study combining the two tasks on Chinese preschoolers. Therefore, the current research focused on conducting a training study based on the counterfactual thinking task and theory of mind task 3- to 5-year-old children in Chine. The present research testified Riggs et al.'s and Guajardo et al.'s results, and extended current work on the correlations between counterfactual thinking and theory of mind in preschoolers. Under the condition of this study, the conclusions are as follows:(1) In general, theory of mind understanding of 3- to 5-year-old has a rapid development, and the age shows an obvious effect on the development. But, there is...