Previous research on children's knowledge about the mind has primarily focused on their comprehension of false beliefs, leaving the conceptualization of thoughts and thinking less explored. To address this gap, we developed a new assessment tool, the interview about the mind (IaM), to assess children's understanding of the mind. Two studies involving Polish preschool and early school‐aged children were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of the tool: a cross‐sectional study with 212 preschoolers aged three to 6 years (106 boys, M = 59 months) followed by a longitudinal study with approximately 200 children (110 boys) assessed at ages 5.5, 6.5, and 7.5 years. We found that the IaM possesses robust psychometric properties and a one‐factor structure. Younger children recognize that thoughts are imperceptible to the senses and identified the mind's location as the head. Older children exhibited difficulties with analogical or abstract definitions of thoughts. As expected, a linear developmental trajectory was evident from ages 5.5–7.5, with children's language abilities showing a positive correlation with IaM scores. Future research should explore the relationship between knowledge about the mind and theory of mind (ToM), as well as cross‐cultural differences in children's mind conceptualization.

中文翻译：

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超越错误信念任务：儿童如何发展关于心灵的知识


以前对儿童心灵知识的研究主要集中在他们对错误信念的理解上，而对思想和思维的概念化的探索较少。为了解决这一差距，我们开发了一种新的评估工具，即关于心灵的访谈（IaM），以评估儿童对心灵的理解。两项涉及波兰学龄前儿童和学龄早期儿童的研究旨在评估该工具的有效性和可靠性：一项对 212 名 3 至 6 岁学龄前儿童（106 名男孩，M = 59 个月）进行的横断面研究，随后进行纵向研究对大约 200 名儿童（110 名男孩）进行了评估，年龄分别为 5.5、6.5 和 7.5 岁。我们发现 IaM 具有强大的心理测量特性和单因素结构。年幼的孩子认识到思想是感官无法察觉的，并将思想的位置识别为头部。年龄较大的孩子在对思想进行类比或抽象定义方面表现出困难。正如预期的那样，从 5.5 岁到 7.5 岁，线性发展轨迹很明显，儿童的语言能力与 IaM 分数呈正相关。未来的研究应该探索关于心灵的知识和心灵理论（ToM）之间的关系，以及儿童心灵概念化的跨文化差异。