Mark A Sabbagh
Biographic Data
| ID | 5714166 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark A Sabbagh |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark A |
| FAMILY NAME | Sabbagh |
| SIGNATURE | SABBAGH M A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queen's University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2938-6288 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Preschoolers use probabilistic evidence to flexibly change or maintain expectations on an active search task
This study investigated 3- to 5-year-olds' (N = 64, 37 girls, 62.5% White, data collected between 2021-2022) ability to use probabilistic information gleaned through active search to appropriately change or maintain expectations. In an online fishing game, children first learned that one of two ponds was good for catching fish. During a subsequent testing phase, children searched the ponds for fish. Half saw outcomes that were probabilistically c…
Multidimensional Reasoning Can Promote 3-Year-Old Children’s Performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task
An important aspect of executive functioning is the ability to flexibly switch between behavioral rules. This study explored how considering the multidimensionality of objects affects behavioral rule switching in 3-year-old children. In Study 1 (N = 40), children who participated in a brief game separating and aggregating an object’s dimensions (i.e., color and shape) showed improved performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), a measu…
Inhibitory Control and Preschoolers’ Use of Irregular Past Tense Verbs
We investigated whether children's inhibitory control (IC) is associated with their ability to produce irregular past tense verb forms as well as learn from corrective feedback following overregularization errors. Forty-eight 3;6 to 4;5 year old children were tested on the irregular past tense and provided with adult corrective input via models of correct use or recasts of errors following ungrammatical responses. IC was assessed with a three-ite…
Maternal depression and children’s false belief understanding
Children of depressed mothers show substantial social impairment, which increases their risk for developing depression. Theory of mind understanding forms the basis of social functioning, and is impaired in children of currently depressed mothers. Models of risk emphasize that a history of any maternal depression confers risk to later psychopathology. Therefore, we tested a novel model of the impact of lifetime maternal depression on children’s f…
The Children’s Social Understanding Scale: Construction and validation of a parent-report measure for assessing individual differences in children’s theories of mind
Children's theory of mind (ToM) is typically measured with laboratory assessments of performance. Although these measures have generated a wealth of informative data concerning developmental progressions in ToM, they may be less useful as the sole source of information about individual differences in ToM and their relation to other facets of development. In the current research, we aimed to expand the repertoire of methods available for measuring…
Selective social learning: New perspectives on learning from others
This special issue was motivated by the recent, wide-ranging interest in the development of children's selective social learning. Human beings have a far-reaching dependence on others for information, and the focus of this issue is on the processes by which children selectively and intelligently learn from others. It showcases some of the finest current work in this area and also aims to encourage new lines of investigation and new ways of thinki…
Individual differences in executive functioning predict preschoolers’ improvement from theory-of-mind training
Twenty-four 3.5-year-old children who initially showed poor performance on false-belief tasks participated in a training protocol designed to promote performance on these tasks. Our aim was to determine whether the extent to which children benefited from training was predicted by their performance on a battery of executive functioning tasks. Findings indicated that individual differences in executive functioning performance strongly and consisten…
Learning foreign labels from a foreign speaker: The role of (limited) exposure to a second language
Three- and four-year-olds ( N = 144) were introduced to novel labels by an English speaker and a foreign speaker (of Nordish, a made-up language), and were asked to endorse one of the speaker's labels. Monolingual English-speaking children were compared to bilingual children and English-speaking children who were regularly exposed to a language other than English. All children tended to endorse the English speaker's labels when asked ‘What do you…
Parents' use of conventional and unconventional labels in conversations with their preschoolers
Parents' use of conventional versus unconventional labels with their two- ( n =12), three- ( n =12) and four-year-old children ( n =12) was assessed as they talked about objects that were either known or unknown to them. For known objects, parents provided typical conventional labels casually during the conversation. For unknown objects, parents were less likely to use typical nouns as labels and marked their labels with additional information su…
Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages
How an appreciation of conventionality shapes early word learning
Children's sensitivity to the shared, conventional nature of word meanings makes their word learning more efficient and less prone to error. After reviewing the evidence in support of this claim, we suggest that children's earliest appreciation of conventionality might be rooted in limitations in their theory-of-mind skills
Conventionality and cognitive development: Learning to think the right way
Although there are multiple ways in which young children can use language, categorize objects, use tools, and play games, they seem to quickly realize that there is one preferred, or conventional, way to do each of these things. These disparate domains share a common conventional structure
The Development of Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Preschoolers
Preschoolers' theory-of-mind development follows a similar age trajectory across many cultures. To determine whether these similarities are related to similar underlying ontogenetic processes, we examined whether the relation between theory of mind and executive function commonly found among U.S. preschoolers is also present among Chinese preschoolers. Preschoolers from Beijing, China (N = 109), were administered theory-of-mind and executive-func…
Multiple Labels for Objects in Conversations With Young Children: Parents' Language and Children's Developing Expectations About Word Meanings
Children sometimes seem to expect words to have mutually exclusive meanings in certain contexts of early word learning. In 2 studies, 12- to 24-month-old children and their parents were videotaped as they engaged in conversations while playing with sets of toys (sea creatures, vehicles, doll clothing) in free-play, storytelling, and categorization contexts. In both studies, parents demonstrated a reliable preference to provide just 1 label for a …
Do word learners ignore ignorant speakers
Thirty-six three- to four-year-old children were tested to assess whether hearing a word-referent link from an ignorant speaker affected children's abilities to subsequently link the same word with an alternative referent offered by another speaker. In the principal experimental conditions, children first heard either an ignorant or a knowledgeable speaker link a novel word with one of three toys. The first speaker's labelling episode was followe…
Children use whole-part juxtaposition as a pragmatic cue to word meaning
When parents label novel parts of familiar objects, they typically provide familiar whole-object terms before offering novel part terms (e.g., "See this cup? This is the rim."). Such whole-part juxtaposition might help children to accurately interpret the meaning of novel part terms, but it can do so only if they recognize the conjunction as a potential cue to part meaning. Two studies examined (a) whether 3- to 4-year-olds use whole-part juxtapo…
Learning Words from Knowledgeable versus Ignorant Speakers: Links Between Preschoolers' Theory of Mind and Semantic Development
Two studies addressed whether children consider speakers' knowledge states when establishing initial word-referent links. In Study 1, forty-eight 3- and 4-year-olds were taught two novel words by a speaker who expressed either knowledge or ignorance about the words' referents. Children showed better word learning when the speaker was knowledgeable. In Study 2, forty-eight 3- and 4-year-olds were taught two novel words by a speaker who expressed u…
Emergence is what
The commentaries provide a thoughtful range of responses that reflect the existing theoretical diversity concerning explanations of language development. Below we clarify and amplify a few points from our original review that appeared to have been unclear
Buzzsaws and blueprints: What children need (or don't need) to learn language
Review essay on: B. M AC W HINNEY (ed.), The emergence of language . Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1999. An old joke that has been circulating for the past decade or so goes as follows: a biologist, a physicist, and a cognitive scientist were sitting around discussing the great achievements of their fields. The biologist waxed eloquent about the insights of Darwin's theory of evolution; the physicist expounded on the implications of Einstein's theory of g…
Contents Vol. 42, 1999
Conversation and Conceptual Development: Challenges, Alternatives, and Future Directions
Metarepresentation in action: 3-, 4-, And 5-Year-Olds' Developing Theories of Mind in Parent-Child Conversations
Using a cross-sectional natural language database, the authors investigated the parent-child conversations of 36 three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds to explore 2 issues regarding the development of metarepresentation. First, children's uses of explicit contrastives (ECs)--utterances that explicitly contrast 2 differing mental states--were explored. Four-year-olds and, to a greater extent, 5-year-olds were found to reliably use ECs. Second, parents' respo…
Metarepresentation in action: 3-, 4-, And 5-Year-Olds' Developing Theories of Mind in Parent–child Conversations
Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages
Metarepresentation in action: 3-, 4-, And 5-Year-Olds' Developing Theories of Mind in Parent-Child Conversations
Using a cross-sectional natural language database, the authors investigated the parent-child conversations of 36 three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds to explore 2 issues regarding the development of metarepresentation. First, children's uses of explicit contrastives (ECs)--utterances that explicitly contrast 2 differing mental states--were explored. Four-year-olds and, to a greater extent, 5-year-olds were found to reliably use ECs. Second, parents' respo…
Metarepresentation in action: 3-, 4-, And 5-Year-Olds' Developing Theories of Mind in Parent–child Conversations
The Children’s Social Understanding Scale: Construction and validation of a parent-report measure for assessing individual differences in children’s theories of mind
Children's theory of mind (ToM) is typically measured with laboratory assessments of performance. Although these measures have generated a wealth of informative data concerning developmental progressions in ToM, they may be less useful as the sole source of information about individual differences in ToM and their relation to other facets of development. In the current research, we aimed to expand the repertoire of methods available for measuring…
Selective social learning: New perspectives on learning from others
This special issue was motivated by the recent, wide-ranging interest in the development of children's selective social learning. Human beings have a far-reaching dependence on others for information, and the focus of this issue is on the processes by which children selectively and intelligently learn from others. It showcases some of the finest current work in this area and also aims to encourage new lines of investigation and new ways of thinki…
Individual differences in executive functioning predict preschoolers’ improvement from theory-of-mind training
Twenty-four 3.5-year-old children who initially showed poor performance on false-belief tasks participated in a training protocol designed to promote performance on these tasks. Our aim was to determine whether the extent to which children benefited from training was predicted by their performance on a battery of executive functioning tasks. Findings indicated that individual differences in executive functioning performance strongly and consisten…
Multiple Labels for Objects in Conversations With Young Children: Parents' Language and Children's Developing Expectations About Word Meanings
Children sometimes seem to expect words to have mutually exclusive meanings in certain contexts of early word learning. In 2 studies, 12- to 24-month-old children and their parents were videotaped as they engaged in conversations while playing with sets of toys (sea creatures, vehicles, doll clothing) in free-play, storytelling, and categorization contexts. In both studies, parents demonstrated a reliable preference to provide just 1 label for a …
Children use whole-part juxtaposition as a pragmatic cue to word meaning
When parents label novel parts of familiar objects, they typically provide familiar whole-object terms before offering novel part terms (e.g., "See this cup? This is the rim."). Such whole-part juxtaposition might help children to accurately interpret the meaning of novel part terms, but it can do so only if they recognize the conjunction as a potential cue to part meaning. Two studies examined (a) whether 3- to 4-year-olds use whole-part juxtapo…
Metarepresentation in action: 3-, 4-, And 5-Year-Olds' Developing Theories of Mind in Parent-Child Conversations
Using a cross-sectional natural language database, the authors investigated the parent-child conversations of 36 three-, 4-, and 5-year-olds to explore 2 issues regarding the development of metarepresentation. First, children's uses of explicit contrastives (ECs)--utterances that explicitly contrast 2 differing mental states--were explored. Four-year-olds and, to a greater extent, 5-year-olds were found to reliably use ECs. Second, parents' respo…
Metarepresentation in action: 3-, 4-, And 5-Year-Olds' Developing Theories of Mind in Parent–child Conversations
Contents Vol. 42, 1999
Conversation and Conceptual Development: Challenges, Alternatives, and Future Directions
Emergence is what
The commentaries provide a thoughtful range of responses that reflect the existing theoretical diversity concerning explanations of language development. Below we clarify and amplify a few points from our original review that appeared to have been unclear
Buzzsaws and blueprints: What children need (or don't need) to learn language
Review essay on: B. M AC W HINNEY (ed.), The emergence of language . Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1999. An old joke that has been circulating for the past decade or so goes as follows: a biologist, a physicist, and a cognitive scientist were sitting around discussing the great achievements of their fields. The biologist waxed eloquent about the insights of Darwin's theory of evolution; the physicist expounded on the implications of Einstein's theory of g…
Learning Words from Knowledgeable versus Ignorant Speakers: Links Between Preschoolers' Theory of Mind and Semantic Development
Two studies addressed whether children consider speakers' knowledge states when establishing initial word-referent links. In Study 1, forty-eight 3- and 4-year-olds were taught two novel words by a speaker who expressed either knowledge or ignorance about the words' referents. Children showed better word learning when the speaker was knowledgeable. In Study 2, forty-eight 3- and 4-year-olds were taught two novel words by a speaker who expressed u…
Children use whole-part juxtaposition as a pragmatic cue to word meaning
When parents label novel parts of familiar objects, they typically provide familiar whole-object terms before offering novel part terms (e.g., "See this cup? This is the rim."). Such whole-part juxtaposition might help children to accurately interpret the meaning of novel part terms, but it can do so only if they recognize the conjunction as a potential cue to part meaning. Two studies examined (a) whether 3- to 4-year-olds use whole-part juxtapo…
Do word learners ignore ignorant speakers
Thirty-six three- to four-year-old children were tested to assess whether hearing a word-referent link from an ignorant speaker affected children's abilities to subsequently link the same word with an alternative referent offered by another speaker. In the principal experimental conditions, children first heard either an ignorant or a knowledgeable speaker link a novel word with one of three toys. The first speaker's labelling episode was followe…
Multiple Labels for Objects in Conversations With Young Children: Parents' Language and Children's Developing Expectations About Word Meanings
Children sometimes seem to expect words to have mutually exclusive meanings in certain contexts of early word learning. In 2 studies, 12- to 24-month-old children and their parents were videotaped as they engaged in conversations while playing with sets of toys (sea creatures, vehicles, doll clothing) in free-play, storytelling, and categorization contexts. In both studies, parents demonstrated a reliable preference to provide just 1 label for a …
The Development of Executive Functioning and Theory of Mind: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Preschoolers
Preschoolers' theory-of-mind development follows a similar age trajectory across many cultures. To determine whether these similarities are related to similar underlying ontogenetic processes, we examined whether the relation between theory of mind and executive function commonly found among U.S. preschoolers is also present among Chinese preschoolers. Preschoolers from Beijing, China (N = 109), were administered theory-of-mind and executive-func…
How an appreciation of conventionality shapes early word learning
Children's sensitivity to the shared, conventional nature of word meanings makes their word learning more efficient and less prone to error. After reviewing the evidence in support of this claim, we suggest that children's earliest appreciation of conventionality might be rooted in limitations in their theory-of-mind skills
Conventionality and cognitive development: Learning to think the right way
Although there are multiple ways in which young children can use language, categorize objects, use tools, and play games, they seem to quickly realize that there is one preferred, or conventional, way to do each of these things. These disparate domains share a common conventional structure
Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages
Parents' use of conventional and unconventional labels in conversations with their preschoolers
Parents' use of conventional versus unconventional labels with their two- ( n =12), three- ( n =12) and four-year-old children ( n =12) was assessed as they talked about objects that were either known or unknown to them. For known objects, parents provided typical conventional labels casually during the conversation. For unknown objects, parents were less likely to use typical nouns as labels and marked their labels with additional information su…
Learning foreign labels from a foreign speaker: The role of (limited) exposure to a second language
Three- and four-year-olds ( N = 144) were introduced to novel labels by an English speaker and a foreign speaker (of Nordish, a made-up language), and were asked to endorse one of the speaker's labels. Monolingual English-speaking children were compared to bilingual children and English-speaking children who were regularly exposed to a language other than English. All children tended to endorse the English speaker's labels when asked ‘What do you…
Selective social learning: New perspectives on learning from others
This special issue was motivated by the recent, wide-ranging interest in the development of children's selective social learning. Human beings have a far-reaching dependence on others for information, and the focus of this issue is on the processes by which children selectively and intelligently learn from others. It showcases some of the finest current work in this area and also aims to encourage new lines of investigation and new ways of thinki…
Individual differences in executive functioning predict preschoolers’ improvement from theory-of-mind training
Twenty-four 3.5-year-old children who initially showed poor performance on false-belief tasks participated in a training protocol designed to promote performance on these tasks. Our aim was to determine whether the extent to which children benefited from training was predicted by their performance on a battery of executive functioning tasks. Findings indicated that individual differences in executive functioning performance strongly and consisten…
The Children’s Social Understanding Scale: Construction and validation of a parent-report measure for assessing individual differences in children’s theories of mind
Children's theory of mind (ToM) is typically measured with laboratory assessments of performance. Although these measures have generated a wealth of informative data concerning developmental progressions in ToM, they may be less useful as the sole source of information about individual differences in ToM and their relation to other facets of development. In the current research, we aimed to expand the repertoire of methods available for measuring…
Maternal depression and children’s false belief understanding
Children of depressed mothers show substantial social impairment, which increases their risk for developing depression. Theory of mind understanding forms the basis of social functioning, and is impaired in children of currently depressed mothers. Models of risk emphasize that a history of any maternal depression confers risk to later psychopathology. Therefore, we tested a novel model of the impact of lifetime maternal depression on children’s f…
Multidimensional Reasoning Can Promote 3-Year-Old Children’s Performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task
An important aspect of executive functioning is the ability to flexibly switch between behavioral rules. This study explored how considering the multidimensionality of objects affects behavioral rule switching in 3-year-old children. In Study 1 (N = 40), children who participated in a brief game separating and aggregating an object’s dimensions (i.e., color and shape) showed improved performance on the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS), a measu…
Inhibitory Control and Preschoolers’ Use of Irregular Past Tense Verbs
We investigated whether children's inhibitory control (IC) is associated with their ability to produce irregular past tense verb forms as well as learn from corrective feedback following overregularization errors. Forty-eight 3;6 to 4;5 year old children were tested on the irregular past tense and provided with adult corrective input via models of correct use or recasts of errors following ungrammatical responses. IC was assessed with a three-ite…
Preschoolers use probabilistic evidence to flexibly change or maintain expectations on an active search task
This study investigated 3- to 5-year-olds' (N = 64, 37 girls, 62.5% White, data collected between 2021-2022) ability to use probabilistic information gleaned through active search to appropriately change or maintain expectations. In an online fishing game, children first learned that one of two ponds was good for catching fish. During a subsequent testing phase, children searched the ponds for fish. Half saw outcomes that were probabilistically c…
Psychology (22 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (17 works) · Developmental psychology (16 works) · Cognitive psychology (15 works) · Cognition (11 works) · Language Development and Disorders (11 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · Cognitive science (7 works) · Theory of mind (7 works) · Communication (5 works)