In this project, we explore whether understanding communication is related to Theory of Mind skills and/or to prosocial behaviour.
We ask whether understanding indirect communication is based more on being able to mentally take another person’s perspective (Theory of Mind) or rather on being willing to engage in the increased cognitive effort required to understand indirect communication because of a prosocial attitude.
In this regard, we are currently studying 18-month-old infants. We plan to investigate the relations mentioned above as well as the influence of parental parenting behavior on these correlations also in the further course of development.