Chapter 11: Acquiring a Theory of Mind

Question 1

instinct

Answer 1

1. behaviour that is genetic in its origin, e.g. human sexual desire
2. feeling or emotion that has no basis in fact

Question 2

intuitive psychology

Answer 2

awareness some people have regarding other people’s desires, motives and beliefs; they appear able to anticipate other’s reactions and behaviour

Question 3

unexpected transfer test

Answer 3

measure of theory of mind in which a child sees an object put in one place and it is later moved to another location without the child being aware of it; the theory-of-mind question is “where will the child look for the object when they want to find it?”

Question 4

conceptual shift

Answer 4

large qualitative change in an individual’s cognitive processes

Question 5

representational ability

Answer 5

ability to form a mental representation of an event/ object

Question 6

metacognition

Answer 6

knowledge of one’s state of mind, reflective access to one’s cognitive abilities, thinking about how one is feeling/ thinking

Question 7

deceptive box task

Answer 7

in which a child sees that a box (usually a well known-known brand of sweets/ candy) which they thought contained sweets/ candies actually contains pencils, and when asked “What did you originally think was in the box?” children under the age of 4 will typically say “pencils”.

Question 8

performance limitations

Answer 8

limitations that are associated with the challenges presented by the task being asked, so that their performance may not reflect their underlying competence

Question 9

competence

Answer 9

child’s underlying ability, which is often not reflected in their performance on tasks

Question 10

hindsight bias

Answer 10

inclination to see events that have already happened as being more predictable than they were before they took place

Question 11

hunter-gatherer tribe

Answer 11

tribe of people who live in the traditional fashion of hunting and gathering; in such tribes, it is typical that the individual members will live in small communities and they depend upon one another for survival

Question 12

modularity

Answer 12

view that we have separate modules for different abilities, e.g. face perception, understanding minds, numerical abilities

Question 13

cross-cultural study

Answer 13

study which aims to examine differences that arise purely from culture

Question 14

Wing’s triad of impairments

Answer 14

impairment of:
1. social relationships
2. communication
3. imagination
characteristic of autistic behaviour

Question 15

Down’s syndrome (DS)

Answer 15

chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all/ part of an extra 21st chromosome; often Down’s syndrome is associated with some impairment of cognitive ability and physical growth and a particular set of facial characteristics