Relations between verb factivity and first-order and second-order false belief understanding: Evidence from Mandarin-speaking typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have shown that factivity is closely related to first-order false belief (FB). However, whether the role of factivity in first-order FB extends to second-order FB remains unclear. Investigations of verb factivity and second-order FB would contribute to our knowledge of the role of language in theory of mind (ToM) development. This study examined relations between verb factivity and first-order and second-order FB reasoning in 156 four- to seven-year-old typically developing (TD) Mandarin-speaking children, and in 17 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 17 TD matched controls. Children’s understanding of a factive zhīdào ‘know’, a non-factive juédé ‘think’ and a counter-factive jiǎzhuāng ‘pretend’ was assessed by a truth value judgement task. For TD children, zhīdào ‘know’ (factive) significantly predicted their first-order and second-order FB performances, and jiǎzhuāng ‘pretend’ (counter-factive) significantly predicted their first-order FB performance. For autistic children, they performed significantly poorer than their TD counterparts on complementation, verb factivity, first-order and second-order FB, and their first-order FB performance was significantly related to jiǎzhuāng ‘pretend’ (counter-factive). The findings suggest that verb factivity relates to both first-order and second-order FB, and verbs differing in factuality and mental state status contribute differently to ToM development.

KEYWORDS:

• Verb factivity
• first-order false belief
• second-order false belief
• autism spectrum disorders
• complementation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like thank Shenzhen Nanshan Institution Kindergarten, Shenzhen Heping Experimental Primary School, Shenzhen Xinkangle Special Children Training Center, student helpers for their assistance with the data collection, subjects for their participation in and caregivers for their support to this research.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.