cognitive development - theory of mind Flashcards
What does theory of mind mean
our personal understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling, appreciating that other people have different thoughts and feelings.
Development of theory of mind correlates with age, what are these correlations
simple ToM seen in toddlers by intentional reasoning research (toddlers have an understanding of adult intentions)
sophisticated ToM seen in 3-4 year olds using false belief tasks.
Advanced ToM seen in older children and adults assessed using the eyes task.
Outline Meltzoff intentional reasoning research
children of 18 months observed adults place beads into a jar, in the experimental condition the adults appeared to struggle with this and some beads fell out the jar, in the control condition the adults placed the beads successfully into the jar.
what did Meltzoff find in his intentional reasoning research and what can be concluded from these findings.
in both conditions toddlers successfully placed the beads in the jar and dropped no beads in the experimental condition. suggests that the toddlers imitated what the adult intended to do and therefore have a simple theory of mind.
outline a false belief task and what it intends to test (Wimmer and Perner)
intends to test if children can understand that other people can believe in something that isn’t true. Developed by Wimmer and Perner they told 3-4 year olds a story in which Maxi left his chocolate in the blue cupboard then left to go play. His mother used the chocolate and placed the rest in the green cupboard, where will maxi later go look for the chocolate?
What did Perner and Wimmer find in the false belief task. What can be concluded.
most 3 year olds incorrectly said that Maxi would look in the green cupboard as they assume Maxi knows what they know, however most 4 year olds correctly said the blue cupboard. can conclude that between 3-4 ToM undergoes a shift and becomes more advanced, the 4 year olds can understand that they have different information compared to maxi, therefore maxi will have different thinking and different behaviour.
Sally Anne task is a form of false belief task, what was the link found between theory of mind and ASD using sally anne task
task was given to 20 autistic children, 27 non autistic children and 14 children with down syndrome. 85% of children in control groups identified correctly where sally anne would look for her marble. only 20% of autistic children were able to answer this correctly. Older autistic children and adults showed that this group could succeed due to a ceiling effect, eventually all individuals will pass due to learning.
why did Cohen use a control sample of 14 children with down syndrome (AO3)
down syndrome is also a development disorder, this allowed researchers to be certain that a lack of ToM is specific to ASD and not other developmental disorders, this increases validity.
what can be concluded from the Sally Anne task
lack of ToM is a core deficit in ASD and this deficit is specific to ASD as is not an issue with children with different developmental disorders.
The eyes task was developed to test adults due to the ceiling effect of the sally anne task. Outline the procedure
Involved reading the emotion in pictures of faces showing just around the eyes.
what were the findings of the eyes task?
Adults with AS and high functioning ASD struggled with the eyes task, adults with autism scored a mean of 16.3 correct emotions identified, normal adults scored 20.3
what is the advantage of the methodology of the eyes task? (AO3)
more advanced method of testing ToM as having to read an emotional state is more difficult, involves picking up on subtleties and matching this to language. therefore is a more sophisticated way of testing, In addition more valid as involves reading real emotion on real people which more accurately test ToM
what is the real world application of ToM (AO3)
ToM can be be applied to help understand autism, the tests used to assess ToM are challenging for autistic people as they may not understand what other people are thinking, which in turn may offer an explanation for why some autistic people may find social interactions difficult, hard to interact if cannot get a sense of what someone else is feeling. Therefore ToM tests could be used as a clinical diagnostic tool to help identify ASD in young children and may indicate more tests are needed
ToM is limited in it’s explanation for autism, outline this (AO3)
Autism is a complex disorder that varies between individuals, ToM cannot provide a complete explanation for autism as not every autistic person experiences ToM issues. in addition ToM cannot explain the cognitive strengths of autistic people, this means that there are other factors involved in autism, autism is not a direct result of ToM deficits.
ToM does not outline how it develops, could develop in same way as other cognitive abilities, or could develop through interaction with adults, more research is needed to understand how ToM deficits are related to autism.
Evaluate use of Sally anne task to assess ToM
could only be testing perspective taking and memory, as no empathy or reading emotion is required in this task. does Requires children to think in an abstract way and decentre + and remember where the marble was so is a test of theory of mind however does not consider emotion so may not be a complete test that assesses all aspects of ToM
not realistic test using dolls as no emotion or facial expressions to be read, which would help give an indication of what the dolls were thinking, therefore the test is low in ecological validity as dolls do not represent the complexity of real facial expressions outside of a test setting.
