Preschoolers’ Theory-of-Mind

Whenever we want to figure out why someone did something, especially something puzzling, we try to make guesses about their possible mental states — the intentions, desires, beliefs, and emotions that might have led to their behaviour. Our tendency to do this is called having a “theory of mind”. Several projects in the lab are focused on understanding the social, cognitive, and neurodevelopmental factors that shape preschoolers’ growing abilities to use a theory of mind. We are particularly interested in factors such as children’s flexible thinking skills and their brain development.

We are also interested in the role that children’s social interactions play both on their own and how they interact with aspects of brain development to shape the trajectory of theory of mind development. In these projects, we have been particularly interested in the role that parent-child conversations and social touch play in promoting advances in preschoolers’ theory of mind reasoning abilities.

The Effects of Cuddling with a Parent on Social Cognition

CUDDL-EEG:

Theory of mind is our ability to understand that the behaviour of others’ is guided by internal mental states (i.e., desires, beliefs, intentions). This is an important developmental milestone that develops in children at around 4 years old. In past research, we have found that cuddling with parents can improve children’s abilities to make theory of mind judgments. The goal of the CUDDL-EEG study is to use electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate whether cuddling changes brain activity that we know is important for theory of mind reasoning. Children and parents will read a storybook together and children will play a game where they will be instructed to make judgments about a character’s beliefs.

Caregiver-Child Interactions and Social-Cognitive Development in Preschoolers

Everyday Activities Diary:

The goal of this study is to investigate how everyday caregiver-child interactions at home relate to preschool-aged children’s social and cognitive development. For one week, caregivers and their child complete a short online diary each evening about the activities they and their child shared that day, such as reading together, bedtime routines, playtime, and other daily experiences. After completing the diary, children and their caregivers will visit Queen’s University to play games with a researcher, exploring skills like memory and problem solving, to help us learn more about preschoolers’ social and cognitive development.

The Influence of Social Touch on Children’s Trust in Adult Testimony

Sticker Maze:

Young children often rely on adult testimony to learn about things they cannot directly observe. In doing so, they also learn how to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources of information to determine whether an adult is trustworthy. Although there has been a lot of research examining factors that can affect children’s trust in adults, very little research has looked at how body language may play an especially important role. The purpose of this study is to investigate how contextually appropriate social touch may affect preschool-aged children’s trust in adult testimony.  

In the lab, children will play a game searching for a ball that has been dropped through a maze and have the opportunity to win some cool sticker, while parents complete a few questionnaires.