ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses and integrates findings from prominent research areas in developmental psychology that are typically studied in isolation but are clearly related. During the last two decades, numerous studies have been conducted to investigate developmental trends in the areas addressed in the title of this book. Most of the contributions to the book are based on presentations made at an international workshop at Castle Hirschberg, Bavaria, in May of 2002. Several contributions to this book emphasize that developmental changes in the prefrontal cortex relate to developmental changes observed for executive functions (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) functioning. An interesting question is whether executive functions represent a precursor of ToM or whether ToM understanding predicts the development of executive functions. This chapter focuses on working memory and EF are followed by an overview of the theory of mind literature.
