Development of Theory of Mind

Question 1

How do 3 and 4 year old children perform in the Sally-Anne false belief task?

Answer 1

3 year olds fail

4 year olds pass

Question 2

How do 3 and 4 year old children perform in the Smarties task?

Answer 2

3 year olds fail

4 year olds pass

Question 3

At what age does deception emerge?

Answer 3

5 years old

Question 4

Explain the findings of the sticker task on deception

Answer 4

3 y olds did not spontaneously deceive
4 y olds did not spontaneously deceive but did learn with practice
5 y olds can deceive

Question 5

Explain the findings of Dings study

Answer 5

Theory of mind seems to be causally related to the ability to deceive. 3 year olds trained in ToM skills were more likely to lie after training than the control group.

Question 6

Explain the findings of Repacholi & Gopnick

Answer 6

18 month old’s give the experimenters preferred food (regardless of their own preferred food) whereas 14 month olds give their own preferred food.

Question 7

Explain the findings of Onishi & Baillargeon’s study

Answer 7

15 month old infants look longer when the actor reaches for the wrong box in the true belief condition and look longer when the actor reaches for the right box in the false belief condition.
They have false-belief understanding

Question 8

What is innate theory of mind

Answer 8

Innate or very early learned, there without awareness and is maintained but cannot be verbally expressed

Question 9

What is explicit theory of mind

Answer 9

Learned more slowly and with awareness

Question 10

Name 3 theories of theory of mind development

Answer 10

1. Theory-theory (Wellman)
2. Meta-representations (Perner)
3. Executive function accounts (Carlson & Moses)

Question 11

Explain Wellman’s theory-theory of ToM development

Answer 11

Children’s ToM and the theories they use are modified and become more specific.
2 y olds theory is based on desires
3 y olds theory is based on beliefs and desires
4 y olds theory is based on realisation that beliefs are interpretations and can be inaccurate

Question 12

Explain Perner’s meta-representations theory of ToM development

Answer 12

Suggests children struggle with false belief tasks as they cannot hold 2 representations of an object simultaneously. Focused on big change at 4

Question 13

Explain Carlon & Moses’ executive function accounts theory of ToM development

Answer 13

Children fail at false belief tasks due to a cognitive defecit. Poor executive function skills so cannot pass ToM tasks.

Question 14

Explain the findings of Baron-Cohen et al’s study on ToM and ASD

Answer 14

Sally-Anne task
80% of neurotypical 4 y olds passed
80% of down syndrome children (mental age 4) passed
20% of ASD children (mental age 4) passed

Question 15

Explain the findings of Sodian & Frith’s study

Answer 15

Children with ASD can perform actions (e.g. lock a box) to prevent a puppet from stealing a sweet, but they are unable to deceive a puppet by claiming the box is locked