Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs

The understanding of hidden emotions—situations in which individuals deliberately express an emotion different from what they genuinely feel—is a key skill in theory of mind (ToM) development. This ability allows children to reason about discrepancies between internal emotional states and external e...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Intxaustegi, Alaitz, Serrat, Elisabet, Amadó Codony, Anna, Sidera, Francesc
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Recursos:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
Repositorio:Repositori Obert UdL
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/468618
Acesso em linha:https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081106
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468618
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Social cognition
Belief attribution
Mental state reasoning
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spelling Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic VerbsIntxaustegi, AlaitzSerrat, ElisabetAmadó Codony, AnnaSidera, FrancescSocial cognitionBelief attributionMental state reasoningThe understanding of hidden emotions—situations in which individuals deliberately express an emotion different from what they genuinely feel—is a key skill in theory of mind (ToM) development. This ability allows children to reason about discrepancies between internal emotional states and external expressions and is closely tied to linguistic development, particularly vocabulary related to mental states, which supports complex emotional reasoning. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), especially those born to hearing non-signing families and raised in oral language environments, may face challenges in early language exposure. This can impact the development of social and emotional skills, including the ability to understand hidden emotions. This study compares the understanding of hidden emotions in hearing children (n = 59) and DHH children (n = 44) aged 7–12 years. All children were educated in spoken language environments; none of the DHH participants had native exposure to sign language. Participants completed a hidden emotions task involving illustrated stories where a character showed a certain emotion in front of two observers, only one of whom was aware of the character’s true emotional state. The task assessed children’s understanding of the character’s emotional state as well as their ability to reason about the impact of hiding emotions on the beliefs of the observers. The results showed that the hearing children outperformed their DHH peers in understanding hidden emotions. This difference was not attributed to hearing status per se but to language use. Specifically, children’s spontaneous use of cognitive verbs (e.g., think or know) in their explanations predicted task performance across the groups, emphasizing the role of mental state language in emotional reasoning. These findings underscore the importance of early and accessible language exposure in supporting the emotional and social cognitive development of DHH children.The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, or publication of this article. This work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MICIU) of Spain (reference no. PID2020-118419GB-I00).MDPI2025info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionhttps://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081106https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468618reponame:Repositori Obert UdL instname:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-118419GB-I00Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081106Behavioral Sciences, 2025, vol. 15, núm. 8, 1106cc-by (c) Alaitz Intxaustegi et al., 2025Attribution 4.0 Internationalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/oai:repositori.udl.cat:10459.1/4686182026-06-24T12:42:17Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
title Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
spellingShingle Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
Intxaustegi, Alaitz
Social cognition
Belief attribution
Mental state reasoning
title_short Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
title_full Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
title_fullStr Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
title_full_unstemmed Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
title_sort Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Intxaustegi, Alaitz
Serrat, Elisabet
Amadó Codony, Anna
Sidera, Francesc
author Intxaustegi, Alaitz
author_facet Intxaustegi, Alaitz
Serrat, Elisabet
Amadó Codony, Anna
Sidera, Francesc
author_role author
author2 Serrat, Elisabet
Amadó Codony, Anna
Sidera, Francesc
author2_role author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Social cognition
Belief attribution
Mental state reasoning
topic Social cognition
Belief attribution
Mental state reasoning
description The understanding of hidden emotions—situations in which individuals deliberately express an emotion different from what they genuinely feel—is a key skill in theory of mind (ToM) development. This ability allows children to reason about discrepancies between internal emotional states and external expressions and is closely tied to linguistic development, particularly vocabulary related to mental states, which supports complex emotional reasoning. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), especially those born to hearing non-signing families and raised in oral language environments, may face challenges in early language exposure. This can impact the development of social and emotional skills, including the ability to understand hidden emotions. This study compares the understanding of hidden emotions in hearing children (n = 59) and DHH children (n = 44) aged 7–12 years. All children were educated in spoken language environments; none of the DHH participants had native exposure to sign language. Participants completed a hidden emotions task involving illustrated stories where a character showed a certain emotion in front of two observers, only one of whom was aware of the character’s true emotional state. The task assessed children’s understanding of the character’s emotional state as well as their ability to reason about the impact of hiding emotions on the beliefs of the observers. The results showed that the hearing children outperformed their DHH peers in understanding hidden emotions. This difference was not attributed to hearing status per se but to language use. Specifically, children’s spontaneous use of cognitive verbs (e.g., think or know) in their explanations predicted task performance across the groups, emphasizing the role of mental state language in emotional reasoning. These findings underscore the importance of early and accessible language exposure in supporting the emotional and social cognitive development of DHH children.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081106
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468618
url https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081106
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/468618
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-118419GB-I00
Reproducció del document publicat a https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15081106
Behavioral Sciences, 2025, vol. 15, núm. 8, 1106
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv cc-by (c) Alaitz Intxaustegi et al., 2025
Attribution 4.0 International
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
rights_invalid_str_mv cc-by (c) Alaitz Intxaustegi et al., 2025
Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
publisher.none.fl_str_mv MDPI
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositori Obert UdL
instname:Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
instname_str Universitat de Lleida (UdL)
reponame_str Repositori Obert UdL
collection Repositori Obert UdL
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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