Looking at theory-of-mind 'on-line': a new procedure to track mental state inferences in young children

For 25 years, research on theory-of-mind (ToM) has consolidated the fact that young children attribute mental states to themselves and others in order to understand and predict their behaviour. The assessment of these inferential processes, however, is typically made through behavioral measures that test the child’s inferences ‘off-line’ (usually through verbal responses to a critical question). This procedure has proved useful in revealing the early onset of this species-specific ability but it misses out one of the main features of their use in real life, namely, the rapid, ‘on-line’ and often implicit nature of these processes. The series of studies presented here are part of a research project that aims to track mental states inferences on-line and put temporal measures in relation to the usual verbal measures