Young children's storybooks as a source of mental state information

doi:10.1016/S0885-2014(00)00017-4

Cognitive Development

Volume 15, Issue 1, January–March 2000, Pages 17-37

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(00)00017-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Ninety children's books (half for 3–4-year-olds and half for 5–6-year-olds) were analyzed for references to mental state in three ways: (a) via words and expressions in the text, (b) via the pictures, and (c) via ironic situations. Books for older children were significantly longer than the books for younger children, and overall, they included both a higher frequency of mental state references and a wider variety of such references. However, the rate of textual references to mental state was high for both groups, with a mental state token occurring on average every three sentences in books for both age groups. Moreover, the rate at which new types of mental state references appeared was also high; about every second token represented a new type of mental state reference. Pictures typically failed to represent independently the mental state concepts expressed in the text, but pictures and text together conveyed situational irony in over one-third of the books. Thus, mental state information was largely conveyed via words and irony. These findings suggest that storybook reading may provide even young children with a rich context for developing an understanding of mind.

Section snippets

Materials

The sample of 90 books consisted of narratives selected from a larger database of over 350 books chosen by experts in the field of children's literature. We especially wished to examine the sorts of books frequently read to young children; therefore, the sample books comprised three subcategories: award-winning books (i.e., Caldecott Award), books nominated by preschool children as their favorites (Sulzby, 1985), and random selections from a comprehensive reference to children's picture books

Results

Preliminary t-tests indicated that there was no difference in mean sentence length (calculated as mean number of words per sentence) in the books for 3–4-year-olds (M=9.02) compared to books for 5–6-year-olds (M=10.19), t(88)=1.44. There was, however, a significant difference in total number of words per book, t(88)=3.34, p<0.005. Books for older children contained more words overall (M=751) than books for younger children (M=473). Thus, books for older children were longer because they had

Discussion

Plausibly, very young children become increasingly sophisticated about their own and others' minds by attending to and conversing about people's desires, emotions, cognitions, and actions Dunn et al., 1991, Astington, 1993. If so, then storybooks could provide a rich source of information for such development. Storybooks for young children are full of characters interacting in situations that children can potentially relate to and understand (e.g., a new sibling, relations with parents,

Conclusions

We have broadened the search for influences on the development of understanding of mind to encompass children's storybook narratives. If one takes the present data set as representative of the kind of library that young children might have, then we have demonstrated the plausibility of storybooks as a source of influence, because these books are rich in explicit verbal references to mental states. Additionally, situational irony, offering a subtle perspective on others' thoughts, motives,

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Rackham Merit Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Fellowship to the first author. The research was also supported by a grant from The Office of Vice President for Research, University of Michigan, and NICHD grant 22149. We thank several publishers who donated books to the database. We thank Richard Feingold for discussions on irony. We thank Mark Sabbagh and anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We also thank Jenny

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View full text

Young children's storybooks as a source of mental state information

Abstract

Section snippets

Materials

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

J Exp Child Psychol

Cognition

Cognition

Popcorn

The Child's Discovery of the Mind

Developing Theories of Mind

Children Talk About the Mind

Books that can break barriers toward the handicapped

The School Counselor

Talking about internal states: the acquisition of an explicit theory of mind

Dev Psychol

“You can cry, mum”: the social and developmental implications of talk about internal states

Br J Dev Psychol

The role of dialogue in language acquisition

Mother–child interaction, attachment, and emergent literacy: a cross-sectional study

Child Dev

Theory of mind concepts in children's literature

Appl Psycholinguist

Joint picture-book reading correlates of early oral language skill

J Child Lang

Joint picturebook interactions of mothers and 1-year-old children

Br J Dev Psychol

Words speak louder than actions: understanding deliberately false remarks

Child Dev

Muting the meaning: a social function of irony

Metaphor and Symbolic Activity: Special Issue: Nonliteral Language: Processing and Use

Children's understanding of the meaning and functions of verbal irony

Child Dev

Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children

Dev Psychol

Young children's understanding of other people's feelings and beliefs: individual differences and their antecedents

Child Dev

Directed discussion of character perspectives

Read Res Instr

The development of children's understanding of false belief and the appearance-reality distinction

Int J Psychol

Books Kids Will Sit Still For: A Guide for Using Children's Literature for Librarians, Teachers, and Parents

Children's Theories of Mind: Mental States and Social Understanding

Vocabulary simplification for children: a special case of “motherese”?

J Child Lang

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Ethnopsychologies: cultural variations in theories of mind

Psychol Bull

A to Zoo: Subject Access to Children's Picture Books