The predictive effect of theory of mind and analogical thinking on children's understanding of the lesson in the story: The mediating role of explanation

In this study, it was aimed to test the predictive effect of theory of mind and analogical reasoning skills, which are possible cognitive processes that may underlie the ability of children aged 4-6 years to understand a message given in stories and generalize them to other events in daily life, and also to examine the mediating role of children's producing explanations about key aspects in the story. The sample of the study consists of 47 Turkish children between the ages of 4-6 (48-84 months). The study took place in two online sessions and consists of two different illustrated stories and questions with a message to be told in the first session. These questions involve one open-ended question in the middle and at the end of the story, one open-ended question that measures understanding of the main idea, two multiple-choice vignette questions that measure the ability to transfer the message in the story to situations with different content, a theme selection question, and an open-ended question that measures generalizability to daily life situation. In the second session, the Theory of Mind Test Battery consisting of 15 items, 9 control questions and 9 sub-dimensions, and the task of making analogies with 6 low and 6 high relationships were given to the children. Our research which was carried out in line with Results showed that the ability to produce qualified explanations has a moderate and positive relationship with understanding the main idea in the story, transferring it and choosing the right theme. The level of success in Theory of Mind differed according to the sub dimensions as expected. The regression analysis revealed that, the predictive effect of theory of mind and analogical thinking on the ability to understand and transfer the message in the story is significant, and producing explanations plays a mediator role in this effect. These findings replicated the effect of producing explanations previously observed. It also allowed the examination of individual differences that may have an impact on these skills. Our research is a guide for the development of different teaching methods that will facilitate children's understanding of the abstract content in the stories, such as producing explanations.