Theory of Mind: a Hidden Factor in Reading Comprehension?
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Better understanding of characters' intentions or emotions could aid forming a mental model of the text or help draw inferences important for comprehension.
“It is argued that better understanding of character ' s intentions or emotions could aid forming a mental model of the text or help draw inferences that are important for comprehension (Dore et al., 2018; Kim, 2017).”
From Longitudinal development of theory of mind in adolescence and its associations with fiction reading experience. (2025) · cites this paper as Dore et al., 2018
Children with better theory of mind abilities may prefer to read more narrative fiction over other genres or types of reading materials, due to its relatively rich social content, compared with children who struggle more with understanding other people's intentions and emotions.
“An association in this direction could for instance follow from children with better ToM abilities preferring to read more narrative fi ction over other genres or types of reading materials, due to the relatively rich social content, compared with children who struggle more with understanding other people ' s intentions and emotions (e.g., Dore et al., 2018).”
From Longitudinal development of theory of mind in adolescence and its associations with fiction reading experience. (2025) · cites this paper as Dore et al., 2018
Cites
Baron‐Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00715 · Cited by 4,555 · cited 1× · see citing works
“In this study, exposure to fiction was related to measures such as the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task (Baron-Cohen et al. 2001), in which participants see an image of a person’s eye region and must choose which of four possible mental states the person is experiencing.”
MethodDecoding, reading, and reading disability.
Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986) · Remedial and Special Education · doi:10.1177/074193258600700104 · Cited by 3,972 · see citing works
Situation models in language comprehension and memory
Zwaan, R. A., & Radvansky, G. A. (1998) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.123.2.162 · Cited by 2,877 · see citing works
Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind
Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1239918 · Cited by 1,642 · cited 2× · see citing works
“Although some studies have found that reading literary fiction results in an immediate improvement on ToM measures relative to non-literary fiction or non-fiction (Kidd and Castano 2013; Pino and Mazza 2016), more recent large-scale attempts to replicate these findings have found null results (Panero et al.”
ResultThe Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience
Mar, R. A., & Oatley, K. (2008) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00073.x · Cited by 1,345 · see citing works
Theory of mind and rule-based reasoning
Frye, D., Zelazo, P. D., & Palfai, T. (1995) · Cognitive Development · doi:10.1016/0885-2014(95)90024-1 · Cited by 923 · see citing works
Mar, R. A., Oatley, K., & Peterson, J. B. (2009) · COMM · doi:10.1515/comm.2009.025 · Cited by 552 · see citing works
The Use of “Literary Fiction” to Promote Mentalizing Ability
Pino, M. C., & Mazza, M. (2016) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160254 · Cited by 123 · cited 1× · see citing works
“…have found that reading literary fiction results in an immediate improvement on ToM measures relative to non-literary fiction or non-fiction (Kidd and Castano 2013; Pino and Mazza 2016), more recent large-scale attempts to replicate these findings have found null results (Panero et al. 2016).”
Result
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Cited by
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van der Kleij, S. W., Devine, R. T., Shapiro, L. R., Ricketts, J., & Apperly, I. (2025) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0001965 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Dore, R. A., Amendum, S. J., Golinkoff, R. M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Delaware (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dore, Rebecca A.
- Venue
- Educational Psychology Review
- Published
- 2018-06-04
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 1067-1089
- ISSN
- 1040-726X (ISSN-L)
- 1573-336X
- OpenAlex
- W2805748929
- Cited by
- 156
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 6 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 16.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Educational Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
- Grantee Submission
- Funders
- Institute of Education Sciences (R305B130012, R305A150435)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- theory of mind, reading comprehension, narrative processing, children, inferencing, causal framework, cognitive development
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