Theory of mind plasticity in aging: The role of baseline, verbal knowledge, and executive functions

ABSTRACT

Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to attribute mental states to the self and others in order to explain and predict social behaviour. Meta-analytic results have shown a decline in ToM abilities in healthy older adults. Recent research has also highlighted the possibility of enhancing older adults’ ToM performance through group conversations focused on mental states. Our aim was to determine whether the extent to which older people benefited from a ToM training was predicted by performance on a battery of executive functioning tasks, on baselines in ToM tasks, on verbal knowledge. Forty-three older adults (60–84 years) participated in a three-session ToM training programme that has previously shown to be effective in improving ToM ability. Results showed that verbal knowledge predicted training gains in practiced ToM tasks. In addition, age, executive functions and baseline performance predicted training gains in non-practiced ToM tasks. Results are discussed in light of the amplification model.

KEYWORDS:

• Theory of mind
• aging
• plasticity
• executive functions
• training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Alessia Rosi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6692-3279

Notes

1 As the training programme was very similar to the one used by Cavallini and colleagues in which there was a control group (Cavallini et al., 2015), we wanted to compare the gains produced by the ToM training in these two studies. An independent T-test showed that the gains in both studies was similar with regards to the Strange Stories, t₍₇₁₎ = .85, p = .40, 95% CI [−.93, 2.31], and Animation Task, t₍₇₂₎ = .13, p = .90,95% CI [−1.32, 1.50]. Concerning the Metarepresentational Verbs task, results showed that the gain in this study was marginally bigger than the gains in the study of Cavallini et al. (2015), t₍₇₃₎ = −1.93, p = .057, 95% CI [−1.11, .02]. Effect size of the present training and the previous one are, respectively: Strange Stories ${\eta }_p^2$ = .52 and ${\eta }_p^2$=.57; Animation Task ${\eta }_p^2$=.16 and ${\eta }_p^2$= .17; Metarepresentational Verbs task ${\eta }_p^2$= .12 and ${\eta }_p^2$= .01.