心理理论和语言发展的关系

Children's Theory-of-Mind and Language Development

大量的研究表明心理理论和语言之间存在着密切的关系,但具体关系如何,一直存在争议。文章介绍了心理理论和语言关系的新近研究,着重阐述了目前关于二者关系的两种观点:(1)心理理论和语言发展之间不仅是早期揭示的一般相关关系,而是可能存在着因果关系——或以语言为因,或以心理理论为因;(2)心理理论和语言都受第三种因素影响,如执行功能和生长环境,但这些因素是究竟如何影响心理理论和语言发展的,还需深入探讨。文章最后对该领域今后的研究提出了新的见解和思路,包括对不同语言能力间的比较研究,对二者关系的跨文化研究和毕生取向研究等。

Plenty of studies have revealed that there is a clear evidence for a link between ToM and language, but what exactly they are is still left unknown. The latest researches about their relations have been introduced and two dominant views are presented in this paper： （1） There is a certain causal link between theory-of-mind and language, of which 2 points are included, one is the causal link from language to theory-of-mind, language plays a fundamental role in ToM development, the other is the causal link from theory-of-mind to language ability. （2） Theory-of-mind and language both depend on some other factors, such as executive function and living environment, but how do those factors work needs further discussion. The future trends and new approaches are discussed, including research on across-culture, comparative study in various language ability, life-span research of their relations etc.