Theory of mind and text comprehension across the lifespan: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

Researchers argue that theory of mind (ToM) abilities are needed for text (listening or reading) comprehension. Although many studies have supported this claim, findings are mixed and researchers have disagreed on how fundamental this relation is-for example, whether ToM and text comprehension are related merely because of shared variance with verbal and executive function skills. To address these issues more definitively, we conducted a meta-analysis examining ToM and text comprehension, which included 47 independent samples with 5,123 participants ranging in age from 3 to 70 years of age (M = 10.53 years). We found a statistically significant association (r = .33) between ToM and text comprehension across 157 effect sizes. This relation did not differ based on whether data were cross-sectional or longitudinal, the age of participants, or most characteristics of the ToM or comprehension tasks (e.g., the degree to which they were narrative or inferential). However, the effect size was stronger in some languages and for listening comprehension rather than reading comprehension tasks. In longitudinal designs, the effect size did not differ depending on whether ToM was assessed before text comprehension or the reverse. Finally, we conducted meta-analyses controlling for verbal and/or executive function abilities and found that the relation between ToM and text comprehension was significant when controlling for each as well as both abilities (r = .22-.32). The current findings provide the strongest evidence to date that there is a fundamental relation between ToM and text comprehension. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).