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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Neuropsychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1456432
This article is part of the Research Topic When (and how) Theory of Mind is useful? Evidence from Innovative Assessment Tools, Training, and Treatments Strategies - Volume II View all articles

Assessing Metarepresentational Abilities in Adolescence: An Exploratory Study on Relationships Between Definitional Competence and Theory of Mind

Provisionally accepted
Alessia Cornaggia Alessia Cornaggia 1*Federica Bianco Federica Bianco 1ILARIA CASTELLI ILARIA CASTELLI 1Carmen Belacchi Carmen Belacchi 2
  • 1 Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy
  • 2 Department of Communication Sciences, Humanities and International Studies, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Marche, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Several developmental changes occur in the adolescence, particularly in the metarepresentational domain, which allow and promote an adaptive sociality. We explored the possible relationships between Theory of Mind (ToM) and definitional competences, both metarepresentational, beyond age and gender effects. To reach our goals, we involved 75 adolescents (age range 14 -19 years, M = 15.7, SD = 1.36). ToM was measured through "The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test" (RMET) and definitional competence was assessed via a new instrument, namely the "Co.De. Scale". Attention was paid to check if results were different when considering mental states vs. non mental states of the scale and emotional words vs. non emotional words. T-tests showed that older adolescents (third-grade of high school) performed better than younger ones (first-grade of high school) in both tasks. Only in male group there were no school grade differences in ToM task. Regression analyses showed that RMET performance predicted the score of Non emotional mental states definitions and, even if marginally, of ToM Words definitions. However, RMET was not a predictor of the general performance in the definitional task, nor on Emotion definitions. Connections with the global adolescents' development and possible educative implications are discussed.

    Keywords: Theory of mind1, mindreading2, definitional competence scale3, adolescence4, metarepresentational abilities5 ha formattato: Tipo di carattere: Corsivo

    Received: 28 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cornaggia, Bianco, CASTELLI and Belacchi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alessia Cornaggia, Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, 24129, Lombardy, Italy

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