Examining reading comprehension skills in different text types in terms of theory of mind skills

The purpose of the study is examining reading comprehension skills in different text types in terms of tehory of mind skills. Accordingly, vocabulary, verbal working memory and attention skills, which are known to have an effect on theory of mind and reading comprehension skills, were included in the study. The dependent variables of the study were reading comprehension skills in narrative and informative texts; the independent variables were theory of mind, vocabulary, verbal working memory and attention. The research was conducted in the correlational screening model. The study group of the research consists of 148 third grade students. The data of the study were collected with the Informal Reading Inventory, Vocabulary Scale, Theory of Mind Tasks, Nonword Repetition List and Bourdon Attention Test. Data were analyzed by simple linear regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS 24. According to the results of the simple linear regression analysis, the theory of mind variable alone explained 27% of the change in reading comprehension skills in narrative texts and 09% of the change in reading comprehension skills in informative texts. In addition, theory of mind is a significant predictor of reading comprehension skills in narrative and informative texts. According to the results of multiple linear regression analysis, 39% of the change in reading comprehension skills in narrative text and 30% of the change in reading comprehension skills in informative text are explained by independent variables. It is seen that vocabulary, theory of mind and attention variables are significant predictors of reading comprehension skills in narrative text, while vocabulary and verbal working memory are significant predictors of reading comprehension skills in informative text. However, verbal working memory was not a significant predictor of reading comprehension in narrative text, and theory of mind and attention variables were not significant predictors of reading comprehension in informative text. When the relationships between variables are analyzed, it is seen that there is a higher relationship between reading comprehension skills in narrative text and theory of mind, and between reading comprehension skills in informative text and vocabulary variable compared to other variables. Keywords: Reading comprehension skills, theory of mind skills, vocabulary, verbal working memory, attention