Mental verb understanding as a facet of Theory of Mind: The comprehension of the verb “to Learn” in a life-span perspective

The chapter opens with a brief overview on the relation between Theory of Mind (ToM) and metacognition. A specific field of metacognition is then deepened, that is, the understanding and decoding of the mental operations underlying different learning modes. The comprehension of mental verbs is addressed by reporting a study aimed at investigating the developmental trend of the mental verb “to learn”. A few short stories in which the mental verb “to learn” occurs were presented to a sample of 222 students attending different school levels from Primary School to University and 162 adults (teachers, bank employees, and workers). They were asked to choose the correct synonymous among three options, each one providing a specific mental verb which better describes the specific mental action involved in the process of learning. Results showed that the metacognitive ability implied by the understanding of the meaning of mental verbs follows a developmental path that increases in the transitions between Primary School and Junior High School and later between High School and University. As far as adults were concerned, differences were found between teachers and other professionals. Educational repercussions are discussed in the light of ToM.