Children's theory of mind:

Question 1

What are the main Components of Theory of mind:

Answer 1

• We all have mental states (emotions, desires, intentions and beliefs).
• Mental states drive human behaviour.
• Somone else’s mental states are separate from your own.

Question 2

What did Meltzoorf investigate in development of understanding intentions?

Answer 2

• 18 month olds imitate intended actions rather than observed failing actions
• In failing condition, 80% of toddlers performed intended action they didn’t see.

Question 3

What were the findings of Horner and Whiten’s study?

Answer 3

• Children over-imitate, copying both relevant and irrelevant actions
• Suggests children may copy intentional actions without necessarily understanding the intention.

Question 4

What is False Belief Understanding

Answer 4

Ability to understand that others can hold incorrect beliefs about the world.

Question 5

What was Wimmer and Perner’s false belief task?

Answer 5

• Object moving task (adult leaving room, then another adult comes in and changes location of object. Then first adult comes back to look for object. Where infant guesses first adult will look tests false belief understanding.
• Children 4.5 and above scored the best.3-3½ yrs 20% pass;
  3½-4 yrs 60% pass;
  4-4½ yrs 90% pass

Question 6

What is one theory proposed as to why children may fail Perner’s FBT?

Answer 6

Fail through performance error not a competence error.

Question 7

Onishi and Baillargeon’s (2005) Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) task:

Methodology: (Green and Yellow box).

Answer 7

Infants watched a scenario where an actor placed an object in one location but did not see it being moved to another. The test measured how long infants looked when the actor searched in either the original or new location.

Question 8

Onishi and Baillargeon’s (2005) Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) task:

Objective

Answer 8

VoE task aimed to assess whether 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs by observing their looking behavior in response to unexpected outcomes.

Question 9

Onishi and Baillargeon’s (2005) Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) task:

Findings:

Answer 9

Infants looked longer when the actor searched in the new location, indicating they expected the actor to search based on their false belief about the object’s location.

Question 10

Onishi and Baillargeon’s (2005) Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) task:

Interpretation:

Answer 10

This longer looking time suggested that infants possess an early understanding of false beliefs, challenging previous assumptions that such understanding emerges later in development

Question 11

Fabricius et al. (2010) 3-location false belief task:

Objective:

Answer 11

The task aimed to test whether children truly understand false beliefs or use simpler reasoning strategies

Question 12

Fabricius et al. (2010) 3-location false belief task:

Methodoligy

Answer 12

Added a third location to the traditional false belief task where the object was never present

Question 13

Fabricius et al. (2010) 3-location false belief task:

Key findings

Answer 13

5-year-olds were equally likely to choose the “object-never-here” location as the “object-was-here” location

Question 14

Fabricius et al. (2010) 3-location false belief task:

Interpretation

Answer 14

This suggests that 5-year-olds don’t fully understand false beliefs, but instead use perceptual access reasoning.

Question 15

What is perceptual access reasoning

Answer 15

Children reason that if someone didn’t see where an object went, they don’t know where it is and will guess incorrectly.

Question 16

What is the developmental timeline of Fabricius et al. (2010) 3-location false belief task?

Answer 16

True false belief understanding may not develop until 6-7 years of age, when children consistently choose the location where the character last saw the object.

Question 17

What are the Implications of Fabricius et al. (2010) 3-location false belief task?

Answer 17

This study challenges the notion that passing traditional false belief tasks at age 4-5 indicates full understanding of false beliefs.