The text of picture books is a fertile source through which young children learn about mental states. By focusing on English and Japanese books (N = 100; for children aged 3–5 years) as respective representatives of independent and interdependent cultures, the present study examined the cultural differences in the use of two types of mental state language: emotion and cognition. While our findings revealed no cultural differences in emotional word tokens or types, cognitive word tokens and types were higher in English picture books than in Japanese ones. Importantly, English picture books exhibited more self-oriented mental state references, while Japanese picture books had more other-oriented mental state references. Our study suggests that mental state references in picture books reflect culture-specific characteristics.

中文翻译：

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英语和日语图画书中的心理状态参考是如何体现的？分析情感和认知词语的频率及其与自我或他人的关系

图画书的文字是幼儿了解心理状态的丰富来源。 本研究以英语和日语书籍（N = 100；针对3-5岁儿童）为独立文化和相互依存文化的各自代表，考察了两种心理状态语言（情感和认知）使用中的文化差异。 。虽然我们的研究结果显示，情感词标记或类型没有文化差异，但英语图画书中的认知词标记和类型高于日语图画书。重要的是，英语图画书表现出更多以自我为导向的心理状态参考，而日本图画书则有更多以他人为导向的心理状态参考。我们的研究表明，图画书中的心理状态参考反映了特定文化的特征。