The development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior: Protocol for Wave 1 data collection with children and parents by the Developing Belief Network.

The Developing Belief Network is a consortium of researchers studying human development in diverse social-cultural settings, with a focus on the interplay between general cognitive development and culturally specific processes of socialization and cultural transmission in early and middle childhood. The current manuscript describes the study protocol for the network's first wave of data collection, which aims to explore the development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior. This work is guided by three key research questions: (1) How do children represent and reason about religious and supernatural agents? (2) How do children represent and reason about religion as an aspect of social identity? (3) How are religious and supernatural beliefs transmitted within and between generations? The protocol is designed to address these questions via a set of nine tasks for children between the ages of 4 and 10 years, a comprehensive survey completed by their parents/caregivers, and a task designed to elicit conversations between children and caregivers. This study is being conducted in 39 distinct cultural-religious groups (to date), spanning 17 countries and 13 languages. In this manuscript, we provide detailed descriptions of all elements of this study protocol, give a brief overview of the ways in which this protocol has been adapted for use in diverse religious communities, and present the final, English-language study materials for 6 of the 39 cultural-religious groups who are currently being recruited for this study: Protestant Americans, Catholic Americans, American members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, and religiously unaffiliated Americans.

This too shall pass, but when? Children's and adults' beliefs about the time duration of emotions, desires, and preferences.

This research investigated children's and adults' understanding of the mind by assessing beliefs about the temporal features of mental states. English-speaking North American participants, varying in socioeconomic status (Study 1: N = 50 adults; Study 2: N = 112, 8- to 10-year-olds and adults; and Study 3: N = 116, 5- to 7-year-olds and adults; tested 2017-2022), estimated the duration (seconds to a lifetime) of emotions, desires (wanting), preferences (liking), and control trials (e.g., napping and having eyes). Participants were 56% female and 44% male; 32% Asian, 1% Black, 13% Hispanic/Latino, 38% White (non-Hispanic/Latino), and 16% multiracial or another race/ethnicity. Children and adults judged that preferences last longer than emotions and desires, with age differences in distinguishing specific emotions by duration ( η p 2 s > .03 ). By 5 to 7 years, ideas about the mind include consideration of time.

SARS-CoV-2 viral dynamics of the first 1000 sequences from Vietnam and neighbouring ASEAN countries.

Objective: The regional distribution and transmissibility of existing COVID-19 variants of concern (VOC) has led to concerns about increasing transmission, given the ability of VOCs to evade immunity as breakthrough infections become more prevalent. Methods: SARS-CoV-2 genomes (n = 277) were sequenced and analysed alongside all available genomes from Vietnam and ASEAN countries to understand the phylodynamics. The observed lineages were assigned using Pangolin nomenclature, and spread patterns were investigated. Results: Between January and November 8, 2021, VOCs, including alpha (B.1.1.7), beta (B.1.351), gamma (P.1), and delta (B.1.617.2), were observed across the ASEAN countries. While alpha and delta were the major VOCs in nine ASEAN countries, delta was predominant. The alpha VOC was first reported by Singapore, beta by Malaysia, gamma by the Philippines, and delta by Singapore. Of the first 1000 genomes analysed from Vietnam, alpha and delta were the most represented, with delta being the dominant VOC from May 2021. The delta variant was introduced in early January 2021, and formed a large cluster within the representative genomes. Conclusion: Spatial and temporal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants is critical to the understanding of viral phylodynamics, and will provide useful guidance to policy makers for infection prevention and control.

Consistency among social groups in judging emotions across time.

We measured judgments about emotions across time. In Study 1 (N = 254) and Study 2 (N = 162), LGBTQ-Latinx, straight-Latinx, LGBTQ-White, and straight-White emerging adults rated how they would feel if a perpetrator acted positively (P) or negatively (N) toward them in single, isolated events. In Study 2, participants also responded to a new emotions across time task where they judged how they would feel interacting with a hypothetical perpetrator across three timepoints: (1) an initial past event, (2) a recent past event, and (3) an uncertain future-oriented event (e.g., seeing the perpetrator again). Participants further predicted their thoughts and decisions in the uncertain future-oriented event. The past emotional events appeared in various sequences (PP, NN, NP, PN). Results indicated that participants judged events as emotionally unambiguous when occurring first in a sequence or in isolation (positive events feel better than negative events). In contrast, initial events shaped emotional reactions to subsequent events: Participants responded more intensely to episodes that were preceded by events of the same valence. In addition to this augmenting effect, initial negative events were especially sticky: Participants rated a positive event following a negative event as feeling less good than when a positive event appeared first or in isolation, but they judged negative events to feel equivalently bad regardless of order. When evaluating future-oriented affective states, participants drew from the prior experiences and prioritized the recent past (more positive emotions, thoughts, and decisions for PP > NP > PN > NN). Effects replicated across all social groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Prognostic Impact of Immunoglobulin Kappa C in Breast Cancer Patients Treated with Adjuvant Chemotherapy.

INTRODUCTION: Immunoglobulin κC (IGKC)-positive tumor-infiltrating plasma cells are associated with better prognosis in node-negative breast cancer patients without adjuvant systemic therapy. In the present study we evaluated the prognostic significance of IGKC in breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy ± tamoxifen. METHODS: IGKC expression was immunohistochemically analyzed in 193 breast cancer patients who were treated with adjuvant chemotherapy, either with cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) or 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide (FEC) between 1993 and 2001 with a median follow-up of 11 years. The prognostic impact of IGKC expression was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier survival analyses as well as uni- and multivariate Cox regression. An interaction term was used to investigate a possible association between tamoxifen treatment and prognostic effect of IGKC expression. RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier analyses identified IGKC as a prognostic marker for metastasis-free survival (MFS): higher IGKC expression was associated with a better outcome (p = 0.02, log rank). Results of univariate Cox regression confirmed the prognostic impact of IGKC expression: patients with a strong IGKC expression had a longer MFS (hazard ratio [HR] 1.931; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.087-3.431; p = 0.025). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed the independent prognostic significance of IGKC expression (HR 2.070; 95% CI 1.088-3.938; p = 0.027). The interaction term confirmed a significant interaction between tamoxifen treatment and the prognostic impact of IGKC expression (pinteraction = 0.04). CONCLUSION: IGKC expression had an independent prognostic impact in early breast cancer patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy. There was a significant interaction with the use of tamoxifen.

Dichotomous thinking about social groups: Learning about one group can activate opposite beliefs about another group.

Across three studies (N = 607), we examined people's use of a dichotomizing heuristic-the inference that characteristics belonging to one group do not apply to another group-when making judgments about novel social groups. Participants learned information about one group (e.g., "Zuttles like apples"), and then made inferences about another group (e.g., "Do Twiggums like apples or hate apples?"). Study 1 acted as a proof of concept: Eight-year-olds and adults (but not 5-year-olds) assumed that the two groups would have opposite characteristics. Learning about the group as a generic whole versus as specific individuals boosted the use of the heuristic. Study 2 and Study 3 (sample sizes, methods, and analyses pre-registered), examined whether the presence or absence of several factors affected the activation and scope of the dichotomizing heuristic in adults. Whereas learning about or treating the groups as separate was necessary for activating dichotomous thinking, intergroup conflict and featuring only two (versus many) groups was not required. Moreover, the heuristic occurred when participants made both binary and scaled decisions. Once triggered, adults applied this cognitive shortcut widely-not only to benign (e.g., liking apples) and novel characteristics (e.g., liking modies), but also to evaluative traits signaling the morals or virtues of a social group (e.g., meanness or intelligence). Adults did not, however, extend the heuristic to the edges of improbability: They failed to dichotomize when doing so would attribute highly unusual preferences (e.g., disliking having fun). Taken together, these studies indicate the presence of a dichotomizing heuristic with broad implications for how people make social group inferences.

This is not what I expected: The impact of prior expectations on children's and adults' preferences and emotions.

We examined the influence of prior expectations on 4- to 10-year-olds' and adults' preferences and emotions following an undesirable outcome (N = 205; 49% female, 51% male; 6% Asian, 1% Black, 13% Hispanic/Latino [non-White], 57% White, 18% multiracial, and 5% another race/ethnicity; 75% with a college-educated parent). Participants attempted to win a chance game with multiple prizes; the worst prize being a pencil. The game was rigged so that half of the participants lost, and the other half won. Regardless of the game outcome, everyone received a pencil. For winning participants (high-expectation condition), the pencil was worse than the prize they expected; whereas for losing participants (low-expectation condition), the pencil was better than the "nothing" they expected. Participants rated how much they liked and felt about the pencil preoutcome, postoutcome, when imagining having held an alternative prior expectation, and after learning that everyone received a pencil. Results showed that 6- to 10-year-olds and adults with low (vs. high) expectations liked the pencil more, with emotion ratings trending in the same direction. Prior expectations did not influence younger children's affective experiences. More participants with low (vs. high) expectations also expressed a positive outlook about the pencil, which increased with age and correlated with higher postoutcome emotions. More adults than children explained emotions as caused by thoughts, and only adults consistently reasoned that their preferences and emotions would have differed had they held alternative prior expectations. Once knowing that everyone received a pencil, 6- to 10-year-olds and adults liked the pencil more and felt better. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Children's and Adults' Beliefs about the Stability of Traits from Infancy to Adulthood: Contributions of Age and Executive Function.

We examined developmental differences and sources of variability in trait reasoning. Four- to 10-year-olds and adults (N=198) rated how mean or nice "medium-mean" and "medium-nice" babies, kids, and teenagers were earlier in their lifetime and would be at older ages. Participants expected nice-labeled characters to be nice throughout their lives (participant age effects were null). In contrast, we documented age-related differences in judgments about meanness. With increasing participant age, individuals expected that meanness present in infancy, childhood, and adolescence would persist into adulthood. We discovered a curvilinear pattern in assessments of whether meanness originates during infancy: Four- to 5-year-olds and adults expected mean-labeled kids and teenagers to have been nicer as babies than did 6- to 10-year-olds. Controlling for age and working memory, participants with better inhibitory control more frequently expected mean-labeled individuals to remain mean across the lifespan, but inhibitory control was unrelated to judgments about nice-labeled individuals.

Central Amygdala Projections to Lateral Hypothalamus Mediate Avoidance Behavior in Rats.

Persistent avoidance of stress-related stimuli following acute stress exposure predicts negative outcomes such as substance abuse and traumatic stress disorders. Previous work using a rat model showed that the central amygdala (CeA) plays an important role in avoidance of a predator odor stress-paired context. Here, we show that CeA projections to the lateral hypothalamus (LH) are preferentially activated in male rats that show avoidance of a predator odor-paired context (termed Avoider rats), that chemogenetic inhibition of CeA-LH projections attenuates avoidance in male Avoider rats, that chemogenetic stimulation of the CeA-LH circuit produces conditioned place avoidance (CPA) in otherwise naive male rats, and that avoidance behavior is associated with intrinsic properties of LH-projecting CeA cells. Collectively, these data show that CeA-LH projections are important for persistent avoidance of stress-related stimuli following acute stress exposure.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This study in rats shows that a specific circuit in the brain [i.e., neurons that project from the central amygdala (CeA) to the lateral hypothalamus (LH)] mediates avoidance of stress-associated stimuli. In addition, this study shows that intrinsic physiological properties of cells in this brain circuit are associated with avoidance of stress-associated stimuli. Further characterization of the CeA-LH circuit may improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying specific aspects of stress-related disorders in humans.

Advanced emotion understanding: Children's and adults' knowledge that minds generalize from prior emotional events.

We examined an advanced form of emotion understanding in 4- to 10-year-olds and adults (N = 264): Awareness that people's minds generalize from past emotional episodes to bias how they feel, think, and make decisions in new situations. Participants viewed scenarios on an eye tracker, each featuring an initial perpetrator who caused a character to feel positively (P) and/or negatively (N) in 2-event sequences (NN, PP, NP, PN). Later, the character encountered a new agent who was highly similar to the initial perpetrator. Participants predicted the character's affective reactions (emotions, thoughts, decisions) to the unknown agent while we recorded their eye movements to past episodes. Participants also judged characters' emotions upon seeing additional agents, who differed in degree of similarity to the initial perpetrator. Four- to 5-year-olds discounted pasts with initial perpetrators-believing instead that characters would feel happy, anticipate good, and approach new agents. In contrast, adults exhibited robust beliefs that people generalize from past emotional experiences: They attributed more positive responses to new agents following PP > NP > PN > NN pasts, and they expected characters to have biased emotional reactions to even somewhat dissimilar new agents. Between 6 and 10 years, children increasingly assumed that the past would have a biasing impact; however, they drew stricter boundaries than did adults. Eye-tracking analyses revealed that all age groups attended to characters' emotional past histories when reasoning about reactions to new agents (especially negative events), adults prioritized recent negative events in PN pasts, and participants' attention biases to past event information correlated with their reasoning about emotion generalization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of the C2A domain of synaptotagmin 1 in asynchronous neurotransmitter release.

Following nerve stimulation, there are two distinct phases of Ca2+-dependent neurotransmitter release: a fast, synchronous release phase, and a prolonged, asynchronous release phase. Each of these phases is tightly regulated and mediated by distinct mechanisms. Synaptotagmin 1 is the major Ca2+ sensor that triggers fast, synchronous neurotransmitter release upon Ca2+ binding by its C2A and C2B domains. It has also been implicated in the inhibition of asynchronous neurotransmitter release, as blocking Ca2+ binding by the C2A domain of synaptotagmin 1 results in increased asynchronous release. However, the mutation used to block Ca2+ binding in the previous experiments (aspartate to asparagine mutations, sytD-N) had the unintended side effect of mimicking Ca2+ binding, raising the possibility that the increase in asynchronous release was directly caused by ostensibly constitutive Ca2+ binding. Thus, rather than modulating an asynchronous sensor, sytD-N may be mimicking one. To directly test the C2A inhibition hypothesis, we utilized an alternate C2A mutation that we designed to block Ca2+ binding without mimicking it (an aspartate to glutamate mutation, sytD-E). Analysis of both the original sytD-N mutation and our alternate sytD-E mutation at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction showed differential effects on asynchronous release, as well as on synchronous release and the frequency of spontaneous release. Importantly, we found that asynchronous release is not increased in the sytD-E mutant. Thus, our work provides new mechanistic insight into synaptotagmin 1 function during Ca2+-evoked synaptic transmission and demonstrates that Ca2+ binding by the C2A domain of synaptotagmin 1 does not inhibit asynchronous neurotransmitter release in vivo.

Psychedelics, but Not Ketamine, Produce Persistent Antidepressant-like Effects in a Rodent Experimental System for the Study of Depression.

Psilocybin shows efficacy to alleviate depression in human clinical trials for six or more months after only one or two treatments. Another hallucinogenic drug, esketamine, has recently been U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved as a rapid-acting antidepressant. The mechanistic basis for the antidepressant effects of psilocybin and ketamine appear to be conserved. The efficacy of these two medications has not, however, been directly compared either clinically or preclinically. Further, whether or not a profound subjective existential experience is necessary for psilocybin to have antidepressant effects is unknown. To address these questions, we tested psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and ketamine in a rat model for depression. As in humans, a single administration of psilocybin or LSD produced persistent antidepressant-like effects in our model. In contrast, ketamine produced only a transient antidepressant-like effect. Our results indicate that classic psychedelics may have therapeutic efficacy that is more persistent than that of ketamine, and also suggest that a subjective existential experience may not be necessary for therapeutic effects.

Is There a Downside to Anticipating the Upside? Children's and Adults' Reasoning About How Prior Expectations Shape Future Emotions.

Four- to 10-year-olds and adults (N = 205) responded to vignettes involving three individuals with different expectations (high, low, and no) for a future event. Participants judged characters' pre-outcome emotions, as well as predicted and explained their feelings following three events (positive, attenuated, and negative). Although adults rated high-expectation characters more negatively than low-expectation characters after all outcomes, children shared this intuition starting at 6-7 years for negative outcomes, 8-10 years for attenuated, and never for positive. Comparison to baseline (no expectation) indicated that understanding the costs of high expectations emerges first and remains more robust across age than recognition that low expectations carry benefits. Explanation analyses further clarified this developing awareness about the relation between thoughts and emotions over time.

Temporal encoding strategies result in boosts to final free recall performance comparable to spatial ones.

The method of loci is a highly effective mnemonic that recruits existing salient memory for spatial locations and uses the information as a scaffold for remembering a list of items (Yates, 1966). One possible account for the effectiveness of the spatial method of loci comes from the perspective that it utilizes evolutionarily preserved mechanisms for spatial navigation within the hippocampus (Maguire et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(8), 4398-4403, 2000; O'Keefe & Nadel, 1978; Rodriguez et al. in Brain Research Bulletin, 57(3), 499-503, 2002). Recently, though, neurons representing temporal information have also been described within the hippocampus (Eichenbaum in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(11), 732-744, 2014; Itskov, Curto, Pastalkova, & Buzsáki in The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(8), 2828-2834, 2011; MacDonald, Lepage, Eden, & Eichenbaum in Neuron, 71(4), 737-749, 2011; Mankin et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(47), 19462-19467, 2012; Meck, Church, & Matell in Behavioral Neuroscience, 127(5), 642, 2013), challenging the primacy of spatial-based functions to hippocampal processing. Given the presence of both spatial and temporal coding mechanisms within the hippocampus, we predicted that primarily temporal encoding strategies might also enhance memory. In two different experiments, we asked participants to learn lists of unrelated nouns using the (spatial) method of loci (i.e., the layout of their home as the organizing feature) or using two novel temporal methods (i.e., autobiographical memories or using the steps to making a sandwich). Participants' final free recall performance showed comparable boosts to the method of loci for both temporal encoding strategies, with all three scaffolding approaches demonstrating performance well above uninstructed free recall. Our findings suggest that primarily temporal representations can be used effectively to boost memory performance, comparable to spatial methods, with some caveats related to the relative ease with which participants appear to master the spatial versus temporal methods.

When Your Kind Cannot Live Here: How Generic Language and Criminal Sanctions Shape Social Categorization.

Using generic language to describe groups (applying characteristics to entire categories) is ubiquitous and affects how children and adults categorize other people. Five-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults ( N = 190) learned about a novel social group that separated into two factions (citizens and noncitizens). Noncitizens were described in either generic or specific language. Later, the children and adults categorized individuals in two contexts: criminal (individuals labeled as noncitizens faced jail and deportation) and noncriminal (labeling had no consequences). Language genericity influenced decision making. Participants in the specific-language condition, but not those in the generic-language condition, reduced the rate at which they identified potential noncitizens when their judgments resulted in criminal penalties compared with when their judgments had no consequences. In addition, learning about noncitizens in specific language (vs. generic language) increased the amount of matching evidence participants needed to identify potential noncitizens (preponderance standard) and decreased participants' certainty in their judgments. Thus, generic language encourages children and adults to categorize individuals using a lower evidentiary standard regardless of negative consequences for presumed social-group membership.

The association of psychedelic use and opioid use disorders among illicit users in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Preliminary studies show psychedelic compounds administered with psychotherapy are potentially effective and durable substance misuse interventions. However, little is known about the association between psychedelic use and substance misuse in the general population. This study investigated the association between psychedelic use and past year opioid use disorders within illicit opioid users. METHODS: While controlling for socio-demographic covariates and the use of other substances, the relationship between classic psychedelic use and past year opioid use disorders was analyzed within 44,000 illicit opioid users who completed the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2008 to 2013. RESULTS: Among respondents with a history of illicit opioid use, psychedelic drug use is associated with 27% reduced risk of past year opioid dependence (weighted risk ratio = 0.73 (0.60-0.89) p = 0.002) and 40% reduced risk of past year opioid abuse (weighted risk ratio = 0.60 (0.41-0.86) p = 0.006). Other than marijuana use, which was associated with 55% reduced risk of past year opioid abuse (weighted risk ratio = 0.45 (0.30-0.66) p < 0.001), no other illicit drug was associated with reduced risk of past year opioid dependence or abuse. CONCLUSION: Experience with psychedelic drugs is associated with decreased risk of opioid abuse and dependence. Conversely, other illicit drug use history is largely associated with increased risk of opioid abuse and dependence. These findings suggest that psychedelics are associated with positive psychological characteristics and are consistent with prior reports suggesting efficacy in treatment of substance use disorders.

Try to look on the bright side: Children and adults can (sometimes) override their tendency to prioritize negative faces.

We used eye tracking to examine 4- to 10-year-olds' and adults' (N = 173) visual attention to negative (anger, fear, sadness, disgust) and neutral faces when paired with happy faces in 2 experimental conditions: free-viewing ("look at the faces") and directed ("look only at the happy faces"). Regardless of instruction, all age groups more often looked first to negative versus positive faces (no age differences), suggesting that initial orienting is driven by bottom-up processes. In contrast, biases in more sustained attention-last looks and looking duration-varied by age and could be modified by top-down instruction. On the free-viewing task, all age groups exhibited a negativity bias which attenuated with age and remained stable across trials. When told to look only at happy faces (directed task), all age groups shifted to a positivity bias, with linear age-related improvements. This ability to implement the "look only at the happy faces" instruction, however, fatigued over time, with the decrement stronger for children. Controlling for age, individual differences in executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) had no relation to the free-viewing task; however, these variables explained substantial variance on the directed task, with children and adults higher in executive function showing better skill at looking last and looking longer at happy faces. Greater anxiety predicted more first looks to angry faces on the directed task. These findings advance theory and research on normative development and individual differences in the bias to prioritize negative information, including contributions of bottom-up salience and top-down control. (PsycINFO Database Record

"These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty": Older Children and Adults Struggle With Induced-State Episodic Foresight.

We explored children's and adults' ability to disengage from current physiological states when forecasting future desires. In Study 1, 8- to 13-year-olds and adults (N = 104) ate pretzels (to induce thirst) and then predicted and explained what they would want tomorrow, pretzels or water. Demonstrating life-span continuity, approximately 70% of participants, regardless of age, chose water and referenced current thirst as their rationale. Individual differences in working memory and undergraduate grade point average were positively related to performance on the pretzel task. In Study 2, we obtained baseline preferences from adults (N = 35) and confirmed that, prior to consuming pretzels, people do not anticipate wanting water more than pretzels the next day. Together, these findings indicate that both children and adults are tethered to the present when forecasting their future desires.

How do thoughts, emotions, and decisions align? A new way to examine theory of mind during middle childhood and beyond.

The current study examined 4- to 10-year-olds' and adults' (N=280) tendency to connect people's thoughts, emotions, and decisions into valence-matched mental state triads (thought valence=emotion valence=decision valence; e.g., anticipate something bad+feel worried+avoid) and valence-matched mental state dyads (thought-emotion, thought-decision, and emotion-decision). Participants heard vignettes about focal characters who re-encountered individuals who had previously harmed them twice, helped them twice, or both harmed and helped them. Baseline trials involved no past experience. Children and adults predicted the focal characters' thoughts (anticipate something good or bad), emotions (feel happy or worried), and decisions (go near or stay away). Results showed significant increases between 4 and 10years of age in the formation of valence-matched mental state triads and dyads, with thoughts and emotions most often aligned by valence. We also documented age-related improvement in awareness that uncertain situations elicit less valence-consistent mental states than more certain situations, with females expecting weaker coherence among characters' thoughts, emotions, and decisions than males. Controlling for age and sex, individuals with stronger executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) predicted more valence-aligned mental states. These findings add to the emerging literature on development and individual differences in children's reasoning about mental states and emotions during middle childhood and beyond.

Beyond Sally's missing marble: further development in children's understanding of mind and emotion in middle childhood.

Research on the development of theory of mind (ToM), the understanding of people in relation to mental states and emotions, has been a vibrant area of cognitive development research. Because the dominant focus has been addressing when children acquire a ToM, researchers have concentrated their efforts on studying the emergence of psychological understanding during infancy and early childhood. Here, the benchmark test has been the false-belief task, the awareness that the mind can misrepresent reality. While understanding false belief is a critical milestone achieved by the age of 4 or 5, children make further advances in their knowledge about mental states and emotions during middle childhood and beyond. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of children's sociocognitive abilities in older age groups is necessary to understand more fully the course of ToM development. The aim of this review is to outline continued development in ToM during middle childhood. In particular, we focus on children's understanding of interpretation-that different minds can construct different interpretations of the same reality. Additionally, we consider children's growing understanding of how mental states (thoughts, emotions, decisions) derive from personal experiences, cohere across time, and interconnect (e.g., thoughts shape emotions). We close with a discussion of the surprising paucity of studies investigating individual differences in ToM beyond age 6. Our hope is that this chapter will invigorate empirical interest in moving the pendulum toward the opposite research direction-toward exploring strengths, limitations, variability, and persistent errors in developing theories of mind across the life span.