The relationship between theory of mind and mental rotation ability in preschool aged children

This study investigates the relationship between two tasks of perspective taking, the social perspective taking ability, namely theory of mind, and the spatial one, namely mental rotation, in preschool aged children. Both abilities develop during preschool age (Frick et al., 2013; Wellmann et al., 2001). We investigated 83 children aged between three and four years regarding their theory of mind and mental rotation ability. A significant correlation between both tasks was found for those children, who were able to solve the mental rotation task. This relation was no longer significant when analyzing the two age groups separately. Due to the small sample size as well as the performance in the mental rotation test more research is needed to investigate this relationship and its role in development.