Developing a theory of mind

Question 1

Define Theory of Mind

Answer 1

An ability to attribute mental states and interpret behaviour of others

Question 2

Why is a theory of mind useful?

Answer 2

It’s needed to interact socially and to guide our behaviour

Question 3

What is the Sally-Ann test?

Answer 3

Sally puts her ball in a basket and then leaves the room
Ann, unbeknown to Sally, moves the ball to her basket.
When Sally returns, where will she look for her ball?

Question 4

What is the unexpected transfer or Maxi task?

Answer 4

Maxi puts his chocolate in the cupboard and then goes out to play
His mum, unbeknown to Maxi, moves his chocolate to the fridge
When Maxi comes back into the house, where will he look for his chocolate?

Question 5

At roughly what age will children fail theory of mind tasks and how?

Answer 5

Under 5s
They will assume the child has the same knowledge that they themselves do and will therefore look in the place their object has been moved to even though they didn’t know it has been moved there

Question 6

Why were the unexpected transfer and Sally-Ann tests criticised?

Answer 6

They used dolls which were unrealistic as young and autistic children are unable to consider the beliefs of dolls as they don’t have minds

Question 7

What was created by who to overcome the unrealisticness of the unexpected transfer tests?

Answer 7

Perner et al. (1987) created the deceptive box task

Question 8

What is the deceptive box task?

Answer 8

Showed children a Smarties tube and asked what they thought was in it
All children responded Smarties
They then showed them that there was a pencil in the box and asked them what they thought a friend would think was in the box
Under 5s answered a pencil

Question 9

What did Perner et al. (1987) wrongly assume with the deceptive box task?

Answer 9

That the child could acknowledge their own false belief

Question 10

Gopnik and Astington (1988)

Answer 10

Demonstrated the inability of children to acknowledge their own false belief:
Q: when you first saw the tube what did you think was in it?
A: a pencil
Under 5s couldn’t inhibit their own knowledge and view the situation from novel eyes

Question 11

Siegal and Betty (1991); Lewis and Osborne (1990)

Answer 11

Problem with language:

When children asked ‘where will Maxi look first of all’ accrate responses of the cupboard almost doubled

Question 12

Lewis et al. (1994)

Answer 12

Improving story comprehension also improved results

Question 13

Wimmer and Hartl (1991)

Answer 13

State change vs. deceptive box
Showed children the smarties tube and asked what was in it
A: smarties
Then they emptied the smarties and replaced them with a pencil in front of the children
They the asked ‘when you first saw this tube what did you think was in it?
Children could now respond accurately

Question 14

What else did Wimmer and Hartl demonstrate apart from the state change?

Answer 14

Children don’t misunderstand the deceptive box task
- Still fail when asked ‘what is in the box right now’
Don’t fail because of embarrassment
- Still fail with a puppet

Question 15

What did Perner and Gopnik argue with regards to the age trend?

Answer 15

Children undergo a conceptual shift around age 4 - it’s a specific stage in development

Question 16

Wellman et al. (2001)

Answer 16

Support the idea of a conceptual shift at age 4
Meta-analysis of 178 studies
3.5yrs < chance, 4yrs > chance

Question 17

Who argues it’s a gradual process around 3-5yrs and why?

Answer 17

Lewis et al. (1994) because 3yr olds don’t understand the narrative of the task
Siegal & Beattie, 1991; Lewis & Osborne, 1990 because 3yr olds don’t understand the question

Question 18

What does a false belief test have to do?

Answer 18

Reveal something profound

Be simple enough for young children to understand and prove their understanding

Question 19

Onishi and Balliargeon (2005)

Answer 19

True belief: both child and actor believe something
True belief: both actor and child see something change
False belief: child is the only one who knows the true position
False belief: child doesn’t see the switch but the actor does
Child looked for longer when the actor looked in a box where they shouldn’t know the object was hidden

Question 20

Mitchell, Robinson, Isaacs & Nye (1996)

Answer 20

Kevin sees juice in the jug but Amy tells him it’s milk, what does Kevin think is in the jug?
Most adults say juice
In a variation the same thing occurs but unbeknown to Kevin, Amy actually did swap the juice for milk
Most adults will now say Kevin thinks there’s milk in the jug
Even adults have trouble acting on the knowledge we think other people will have

Question 21

Triad of impairments (Wing & Gould, 1979)

Answer 21

Socialisation, communication and imagination

Question 22

Baron-Cohen et al. (1985)

Answer 22

Sally-Ann task with autistic child, TD children and Down’s Syndrome
Accuracy rates for TD: 85%, DS: 86%, ASD: 20%
Social and emotional problems are secondary to cognitive
Is ToM delayed or absent in autism?