Language and Theory of Mind How Children Learn About the Mind Through Language

Derek E. Montgomery, Professor of Psychology, Bradley University,Virginia Tompkins, Professor of Psychology, The Ohio State University-Lima

Derek E. Montgomery is a Professor of Psychology at Bradley University. His research on the relation between language and theory of mind has appeared in a number of journals and in the edited volume Why Language Matters for Theory of Mind (Oxford University Press). He holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Florida and received the Dissertation Award in Developmental Psychology from Division 7 of the American Psychological Association.


Virginia Tompkins is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at The Ohio State University-Lima. Her research focuses on social cognition in early childhood, in particular how theory of mind relates to children's language skills, parent-child conversation, parent discipline, and how shared book reading promotes theory of mind development. She is currently the Principal Investigator (with Derek Montgomery, Rebecca Dore, and Xin Feng as Co-PIs) of a National Science Foundation award investigating the home literacy environment and parents' mental state talk as predictors of change in theory of mind and narrative comprehension over the year leading to kindergarten entry.
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