B3275 - Cognitive skills and the development of strategic sophistication - 04/04/2019

B number: 
B3275
Principal applicant name: 
Eduardo Fe | University of Manchester
Co-applicants: 
Dr. David Gill, Dr. Victoria Prowse
Title of project: 
Cognitive skills and the development of strategic sophistication
Proposal summary: 

Theory of mind (ToM) is associated with children’s early social relationships, communication skills, self-judgement, self-control and loneliness in young adulthood. ToM also correlates with children’s sophistication in strategic environments, where they need to predict others’ behaviour and best respond to those predictions. Therefore, ToM appears to interact with important determinants of decision-making. There are, however, striking differences in ToM among children of a given age. This project tries to understand this variation in ToM. Specifically, we are interested in studying how school characteristics, parental characteristics (such as income), and personal characteristics (such as personality and cognitive skills) affect the development of ToM. The project will further study how the level of ToM in early life and the variation of ToM over time associate with educational achievement, educational choices and labour market outcomes in young adulthood.

Impact of research: 
This study will provide new insights regarding the effect of school environment and parental characteristics on the development of theory of mind. The study will also contribute novel results regarding the interaction of personal characteristics (such as personality and cognitive skills) affect the development of theory of mind and how theory of mind in early life correlates with educational achievement and labour market outcomes in young adulthood.
Date proposal received: 
Thursday, 14 March, 2019
Date proposal approved: 
Monday, 18 March, 2019
Keywords: 
Social Science, Statistical methods, Childhood - childcare, childhood adversity, Cognition - cognitive function, Dermatology, Intelligence - memory, Psychology - personality, Social science, Statistical methods