1. False belief and emotion understanding in monozygotic twins, dizygotic twins and non-twin children.
- Author
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Deneault, Joane, Ricard, Marcelle, Gouin Décarie, Thérèse, Morin, PierreL., Quintal, Germain, Boivin, Michel, Tremblay, RichardE., and Pérusse, Daniel
- Subjects
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EMOTIONS in children , *MULTIPLE birth , *TWINS , *CHILD psychology , *EMOTIONS & cognition - Abstract
This study investigated the understanding of false belief and emotion in monozygotic (MZ) and same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs compared to non-twin children. Aged 3;9 to 5;1 years, the children (N=123) were administered three false belief and three emotion understanding tasks. Age, family socioeconomic status, mother's level of education and language abilities were controlled. Results showed no difference between the three groups in false belief understanding. On emotion tasks, non-twin children and DZ twins did not differ from each other, but they both performed better than MZ twins. Results are discussed in terms of the Peterson's (2000) variety hypothesis and suggest that the affective closeness experienced by MZ twins might interfere with their understanding of others' emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
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