ABSTRACT
Mental states are subjective with respect to the reality to which they refer, the agent that experiences them, and the time in which they are experienced. Vast numbers of studies have been published on the development and use of theory of mind over the past 40 years, but the majority of these studies have centered around early childhood, and more specifically, the preschool years. Researchers from diverse disciplines have studied the capacity to attribute mental states to others using a variety of terms: ‘Folk psychology’, ‘common sense psychology’, ‘mentalizing’, ‘social understanding’, ‘mindreading’ and, of course, ‘theory of mind’. The dominant focus on preschool children in theory of mind research can perhaps be linked to the availability of a brief, inexpensive, and widely-accepted measure: The false belief task. Consensus has yet to emerge on how best to characterize theory of mind in middle childhood and adolescence. Middle childhood and adolescence are closely tied with important social milestones.
