A relação entre linguagem, teoria da mente e funções executivas: um estudo experimental na aquisição do português brasileiro

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation presents an experimental based study, which investigates the possible relations between Language, Theory of Mind and Executive Functions. Theory of Mind (ToM) is understood as the cognitive capacity of an individual to perceive their own mental states and those of others and, thus, to predict their actions or behaviors (ASTINGTON & GOPNIK, 1988, 1991; FELDMAN, 1992; WELLMAN, 1991). Executive Functions (EFs) are understood as cognitive processes driven by activities that demand a high level of processing, such as planning, inhibiting, coordinating and controlling a sequence of actions for the maintenance of a certain objective. In this study, we focus on the following domains of EFs: working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility (DIAMOND, 2013; LEHTO et al., 2003; MIYAKE et al., 2000). The theoretical perspective assumed is to consider a minimalist conception of language (CHOMSKY, 1995 - current) and, more specifically, the language faculty according to Hauser et al. (2002), as a mental faculty consisting of two instances: the FLN (Faculty of Language in the narrow sense) and the FLB (Faculty of Language in the broad sense). The Grammar Pragmatics interface is investigated based on a formal Pragmatics theory of cognitive nature, in line with the Relevance Theory (SPERBER & WILSON, 2001; 2002). The hypothesis that guides this work is that there is a correlation between the development of EFs and the development of ToM, with implications for the reasoning of False Beliefs (FBs), and that the failure of children under 4 years of age in these tests is not due to the lack of mastery of a recursive linguistic structure, contrary to de Villiers' proposal (2005-2007). The general objective of this study is to better characterize the overlapping of linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive demands involved in first-order false-belief tasks. For this purpose, two sets of experiments were performed. The first set, conducted with children of 3-4 years, has the following objectives: (i) to verify to what extent the anaphoric resumption through and full DPs entails a lower demand for processing; (ii) to verify whether the alteration of the informational status of the narrated text, establishing the reference to characters and objects of the story through full DPs, interferes positively in the performance of the participant children; (iii) to investigate the extent to which intentionality, as a mental phenomenon, constitutes a relevant clue to the attribution of FBs by these children. The second set of experimental activities, consisting of 3 pretests and a classic FB task, was applied to children of 3;0-3;11 and 4;0-4;11 years old, who participated in all activities. The objectives are: (i) to verify the performance of these children in tasks involving EFs, and (ii) to verify whether there is a correlation between the results obtained in the pretests and in the FB experiment. The results indicate that the ability to cope with the overlapping of different linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive demands is directly related to the ability to conduct false belief reasoning and that there is a correlation between the children's performance in tasks related to EFs and to FB.