Tom e sviluppo tipico

Theory of Mind and Typical Development Across the Lifespan

Empirical studies have been conducted on the development of various skills that comprise Theory of Mind in subjects from childhood to old age. The skills investigated include the understanding of non-epistemic (emotions) and epistemic (first-, second-, and third-order false belief and the relationship of the latter with syntactic competence and counterfactual reasoning) mental states; the understanding of mental states from facial (gaze) and vocal cues; the understanding of moral intentionality, gaffes, and complex mental states implied by interpersonal exchanges in everyday situations.

The relationships between theory of mind, Machiavellian competence and personality in developmental age have also been analyzed. For the various purposes of research in this area, numerous instruments have been developed, translated and adapted: a battery for the analysis of precursors, a series of tests relating to the understanding of moral intentionality, for the various tests for the investigation of advanced abilities (Eyes Test children, Faux Pas children and adults, Voice Test children, Strange Stories). The adaptation of paper-pencil tests for administration in functional magnetic resonance to normal adults and elderly subjects has been part of the work carried out in this area of investigation

Trust, attachment, mentalization

The connection between the ability to understand one's own and others' mental states, attachment security and interpersonal trust is currently being evaluated in subjects in developmental age. The aim of the investigation is to understand the connection between the dimension of trust underlying secure attachment relationships, mentalization as a skill connected to this type of security and interpersonal trust in a broad sense, assessed by an instrument specifically constructed for this purpose.

In this context, a collaboration is underway with KJ Rotenberg, Keele University, Keele. Collaboration on the Italian adaptation of the "Separation Anxiety Test" family version (Hansburg, 1972; Klagsburg and Bowlby, 1976), an instrument designed to measure the child's separation anxiety from his family caregiver; collaboration on the construction of the "Separation Anxiety Test" school version, the aim of which is to measure the child's separation anxiety from his school caregiver.

Theory of mind and argumentation

Thoughts in mind project

The performance of children of different ages on a range of tasks, in particular Theory of Mind tasks, will be analysed in relation to the justifications that children provide for these responses, taking into account not only the mentalistic/non-mentalistic nature of these justifications, but also the type of argumentation underlying them, in order to assess the relationship between the correctness/incorrectness of the responses and the type of argumentation adopted.