Developing a theory of mind Flashcards
Define Theory of Mind
An ability to attribute mental states and interpret behaviour of others
Why is a theory of mind useful?
It’s needed to interact socially and to guide our behaviour
What is the Sally-Ann test?
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?
What is the unexpected transfer or Maxi task?
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?
At roughly what age will children fail theory of mind tasks and how?
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
Why were the unexpected transfer and Sally-Ann tests criticised?
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
What was created by who to overcome the unrealisticness of the unexpected transfer tests?
Perner et al. (1987) created the deceptive box task
What is the deceptive box task?
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
What did Perner et al. (1987) wrongly assume with the deceptive box task?
That the child could acknowledge their own false belief
Gopnik and Astington (1988)
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
Siegal and Betty (1991); Lewis and Osborne (1990)
Problem with language:
When children asked ‘where will Maxi look first of all’ accrate responses of the cupboard almost doubled
Lewis et al. (1994)
Improving story comprehension also improved results
Wimmer and Hartl (1991)
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
What else did Wimmer and Hartl demonstrate apart from the state change?
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
What did Perner and Gopnik argue with regards to the age trend?
Children undergo a conceptual shift around age 4 - it’s a specific stage in development
Wellman et al. (2001)
Support the idea of a conceptual shift at age 4
Meta-analysis of 178 studies
3.5yrs < chance, 4yrs > chance
Who argues it’s a gradual process around 3-5yrs and why?
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
What does a false belief test have to do?
Reveal something profound
Be simple enough for young children to understand and prove their understanding
Onishi and Balliargeon (2005)
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
Mitchell, Robinson, Isaacs & Nye (1996)
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
Triad of impairments (Wing & Gould, 1979)
Socialisation, communication and imagination
Baron-Cohen et al. (1985)
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?
