Evolution Of Mentalising

Question 1

Definition of evolution of mentalising

Answer 1

•To predict and explain behaviour by invoking abstract concepts like mind, desire, think, remember etc.

Question 2

Associated abilities

Answer 2

Imagination 
Communication (including deception)
•Social coordination
Following gaze 
Understanding self

Question 3

How did it come to be that humans have a theory of mind?

Evolutionary origins and species specificity

Answer 3

• Note: natural selection works at the level of the individual.
• The development of self-concept.
• Why don’t rats have a theory of mind?
• Are we capable of mindreading? Does it qualify as ESP?!

Question 4

•Do women have a better-developed theory of mind than men?
•Is there anyone who does not have a theory of mind?
(Individual differences and psychopathology)

Answer 4

• The perplexing case of autism and Asperger syndrome
• Isaac Newton
• Wittgenstein
• Hugh Blair of Borgue

Question 5

Is this a topic that falls within the scope of experimental psychology

Answer 5

• How can we tell whether or not someone has a theory of mind?
• We assume that people carry out actions to satisfy desires. They execute the actions on the supposition that their beliefs are true.
• What’s wrong with a test of true belief?
• What’s so good about a test of false belief?
• Methodological
• Theoretical

Question 6

Unexpected transfer test

Answer 6

Puts chocolate in cupboard
Mum moves it to fridge
Where will Maxi look for his chocolate?
Where did Maxi put his chocolate?
Where did Mum put his chocolate?
If maxi ignorant then cupboard
It is the participant who says what maxi will think
About 4 years will understand false belief
3 year olds always fail theory of mind tasks

Question 7

Deceptive box test

Answer 7

Gets round criticisms that children had difficulty with story comprehension
Gopnik and Asington 1988
What’s inside tube
What is it
Therefore Wimmer and Perner argued that children exhibit an understanding of false belief at 4-5 years of a
Sometimes can’t even acknowledge than they themselves has false belief

Question 8

Do apes have a theory of mind

Answer 8

Premack and Woodruff (1978)
Do apes have a theory of mind experiment
Implications - ethical?
Common ancestor
Live in equator in Africa
After experiment, could test children on false belief
Chimpanzees were shown to understand
Dependent on age
Videos and photos of humans struggling with problems

Question 9

Following gaze direction

Answer 9

• Why is it natural to follow gaze?
• How is it adaptive?
• When does it develop?
• Is this ability unique to humans?

Question 10

Why look at the eyes? Why not look at feet or mouth?

Butterworth

Answer 10

Butterworth: By 18 months, infants are highly proficient in tracking their mother’s direction of gaze.

Question 11

What are the benefits of being able to track gaze direction

Answer 11

1. Social referencing. Source et al. (1985)
2. Language development: Baldwin (1994)
3. Understanding the mind behind the utterance: Robinson & Mitchell (1992)

Question 12

Source et al 1985

Answer 12

Social referencing
Facial expressions
74% of infants

Question 13

Baldwin 1994

Answer 13

Language development
Theory of mind development through language development
Communicative development higher ability of mentalising
three experiments 3-and 4-year-old children were given false belief tasks and physical state tasks which did not require understanding about beliefs or representations: Children were asked to report what the state of the world might be now had an earlier event not occurred. The incidence of realist errors in the false belief and physical state tasks was significantly correlated independently of shared correlations with chronological age and receptive verbal ability. In a fourth experiment, children made significantly fewer realist errors when asked to infer a future hypothetical state. These results provide preliminary evidence consistent with the suggestion that pre-school children’s difficulty with false belief is symptomatic of a more general difficulty entertaining counterfactual situations.

Question 14

Robinson and Mitchell 1992

Answer 14

Understanding the mind behind the utterance

Question 15

Can chimps follow gaze?

Povinelli and Eddy 1996

Answer 15

Transparent screen
Opaque area
Will chimpanzees understand about the obstacles and the experimenters line of sight
Chimps did show understanding
Gaze important in understanding of the mind
High level ability not confined to humans

Question 16

Development of self knowledge

Answer 16

Becoming aware that you are an agent of your own action
Gender identity
Shift from physical to psychological

Question 17

Mirror self Recogntion

Answer 17

Becoming aware that you are an agent of your own action:
How do you know that the individual in the mirror is you?
Is there an important difference between seeing a reflection of yourself and seeing a video recording of yourself? (Povinelli et al., 1996)
Are you frightened of your shadow?
Develops in children from about the age of 18 months
Develops in chimps from about the age of 8 years
Evident only in some primate species

Question 18

Povinelli et al 1996

Is there an important differences between…

Answer 18

Seeing a reflection of yourself and seeing a video recording of yourself
YES
HOWEVER if you are seeing the recording at the time while moving
Different between video of past and present

Question 19

What is mirror self Recogntion?

Answer 19

Becoming aware that you are an agent of your own action
How do you know the individual in the mirror is you
Are you frightened of your own shadow
Recognise ur self by movements?
Generated by you

Question 20

When does mirror self recognition occur in humans

Answer 20

Develops in children from about the age of 18 months
The mark test
Red ink on child’s forehead
Child seen themselves in mirror
Pass the mark test they touch the mark on their head so recognise themselves
Fail test by just touching mirror and other things

Question 21

When does mirror self Recogntion occur in animals

Answer 21

Develops in chimps from about the age of 8 years
Evident only in some primate species
Pass mark test when 8 years
Limited to some species with mark test

Question 22

Stages in development
Gender identity
Kohlberg 1966
Martin and Ruble 2010

Answer 22

Stage 1: Gender identification at three years:
Can declare whether they are a boy or a girl
Stage 2: Gender Permanence at 6 years:
Can judge that gender is stable and enduring
Components of gender identity:
Gender concept
Learning gender-appropriate behaviours and stereotypes
Identifying with parents
Developing gender preference

Question 23

Components of gender identity

Answer 23

Gender concept (understand what it is to be male or female)
Learning gender-appropriate behaviours and stereotypes (likely toy choices?) 
Identifying with parents (copying behaviours, expect to do similar things)
Developing gender preference (irrespective of logical sex, gender could be different to one assigned at birth)

Question 24

Subtle changes in human development
Shift from focus on physical aspects of self to psychological
Rosenberg 1967

Answer 24

Say 10 things about yourself in answer to the question, “Who am I?”
Children aged around 10 years focus on their physical qualities. Adolescents are more likely to mention aspects of their relationships with others, their character and their inner feelings.
“If I asked you and your mother how good you were, and you said one thing and she said another, who would be right?”
70% of 10 yr olds said their mother would be right
60% of 15 yr olds said they would be right

Question 25

Locus of self knowledge

Burton and Mitchell 2003

Answer 25

Interior and exterior categories

Question 26

Locus of self knowledge
Burton and Mitchell 2003
Interior category

Answer 26

Who knows best what your secrets are?
Who knows best what games Tommy likes?
Who knows best what you want to be when you grow up?
When Beth cries, who knows best what is wrong?
Who knows best what your favorite food is?
Who knows best when Tommy is feeling hungry?

Question 27

Locus of self knowledge
Burton and Mitchell 2003
Exterior category

Answer 27

Who knows best how good you are at sums?
Who knows best how well Beth can sit still?
Who knows best how fast you can run?
Who knows best how hard Tommy works?
Who knows best how good you are at tidying your room?
Who knows best how helpful Beth is?

Question 28

Results of interior and exterior categories

Answer 28

Sharp age trend
Even 7 year olds tend to cite themselves
And 6 year olds are sensitive to interior / exterior
Interior more than exterior
5-10

Question 29

Cultural differences in self cognition

Nisbett 2003

Answer 29

Tell me about yourself!
Americans tend to talk about inner and enduring traits that transcend context and time period
Japanese give a myriad of answers, supplying different details for different contexts. For example, “I am serious at work, but fun-loving at home.”

Question 30

How long has autism been around for?

Answer 30

A very long time

Question 31

What have we learned

Answer 31

How to define ‘theory of mind’
Placing human development in an evolutionary context
Individual differences – not all people develop in the same way
Empirical tests of theory of mind: Why a test of false belief is widely used
Why is following gaze so important to various aspects of social and communicative development?
The importance of developing knowledge about oneself as a basis for understanding of other minds.

Question 32

Wimmer and Perner (1983) developed two false belief tasks

Answer 32

Unexpected transfer

Deceptive box

Question 33

Kohlberg 1966 identified

Answer 33

2 raw stages of moral development