Theory of Mind

Theory of mind is a critical ability to be able to simulate others’ emotional experiences, understand ones’ own mental states, and to function successfully in social relationships. Our lab is interested in how the ability to understand one’s own and others' mental states develops across the lifespan, from early childhood to old age. Specifically, we are interested in the measurement of theory of mind and the role that self-regulation (executive functioning) plays in its development across the lifespan.

Our past work has examined the validity of a continuous false belief task that can be used with a wide age range of children and showed that it was a valid measure and related to other false belief measures (Mahy et al., 2017, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology).

Our recently published study (Gallant, Lavis, & Mahy, 2020, British Journal of Developmental Psychology) showed that various measures of affective theory of mind (vignettes, emotion recognition, an adapted mind in the eyes task, and empathy) did not cohere once age was controlled for suggesting that they might be tapping into distinct aspects of social understanding.

Relevant Publications

Gallant, C. M. M., Lavis, L., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2020). Developing an understanding of others’ emotion states: Relations among affective theory of mind and empathy measures in early childhood. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 38, 151-166. [PDF]

Mahy, C. E. V. (2018). Mind reading across the lifespan: Current themes and future challenges. Zeitschrift fur Psychologie, 226, 134-135. [PDF]

Mahy, C. E. V., Bernstein, D. M., Gerrard, L. D. & Atance, C. M. (2017). Testing the validity of a continuous false belief task in three to seven year old children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 160, 50-66. [PDF]

Tahiroglu, D., Moses, L. J., Carlson, S. M., Mahy, C. E. V., Olofson, E. L., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2014). The children’s social understanding scale: Construction and validation of a parent-report measure for assessing individual differences in children’s theories of mind. Developmental Psychology, 50, 2485-2497. doi: 10.1037/a0037914 [PDF]
To download the Children's Social Understanding Scale (CSUS) click here.

Mahy, C. E. V., Moses, L. J., & Pfeifer, J. H. (2014). How and where: Theory-of-mind in the brain. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 68-81. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2014.01.002 [PDF]

Mahy, C. E. V., Vetter, N. C., Kühn-Popp, N., Löcher, C., Krautschuk, S., & Kliegel, M. (2014). The influence of inhibitory processes on affective theory of mind in young and old adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 21, 129-145.
doi: 10.1080/13825585.2013.789096 [PDF]

Vetter, N. C., Altgassen, M., Phillips, L., Mahy, C. E. V., & Kliegel, M. (2013). Development of affective theory of mind across adolescence: Disentangling the role of executive functions. Developmental Neuropsychology, 38, 114-125.
doi: 10.1080/87565641.2012.733786 [PDF]

This research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada.