Nonlinearities in theory-of-mind development:New evidence from Dutch and Italian boys and girls

The extent to which Theory of Mind (ToM) performance is influenced by cultural and gender differences remains a subject of debate. A sample of 324 Dutch and 511 Italian children (52% boys; 2.8–11.7 years; 50% boys; 2.6–10.3 years; respectively) was administered the ToM Storybooks. Analysis focused on indicators of nonlinearity: moving standard deviations, moving skewness, and moving rate-of-change. Loess curve smoothing was used and showed local peaks in these nonlinear indicators. A first peak was found around the age of 51 months, a local minimum between 70 and 79 months, and a small peak at... Mehr ...