Lecture 18: Knowledge 4- Theory of mind Flashcards
What is the evidence that theory-of-mind may constitute a cognitive module?
Domain specificity (e.g. autistic individuals impaired at false belief but not false photograph stories), possibly innateness (young children’s TOM understanding), hardwired (dedicated brain region for TOM reasoning).
- domain specificity (e.g., autistic individuals impaired at false belief but not false photo stories)
- possibly innateness (young children’s TOM understanding)
- hardwired (dedicated brain region for TOM reasoning)
Theory of mind:
definitionability to attribute unobservable mental states to self and others, and use these attributed states as a coherent framework to explain and predict human behavior and experience
humans are experts at mind reading in language comprehension and reading stories
False belief task & its control task (false photograph task)
A type of task used in theory-of-mind studies, in which the child must infer that another person does not possess knowledge that he or she possesses (that is, that other person holds a belief that is false).
example = Sally-Anne task
- 4+ year olds succeed (say Sally will look in basket for ball)
- 3- year old fail (say Sally will look in box for ball)
Children’s theory of mind development: before 3 (what do young children succeed and what do they fail)
younger children fails at reasoning about beliefs:
- Sally-Anne false belief task: other’s false belief
- The Smarties task: one’s own past false belief
- to deceive “mean monkey”
younger children succeed in reasoning about desires and goals
- people have desires that may differ from one’s own (you like broccoli/banana, I like crackers)
- understanding gaze (eye detection –>prefer eye region of face, monitor others’ eye gaze –> can figure out direction, use eye-gaze to form joint attention –> turn in direction person is looking and use eye direction to figure out an agent’s goal) –> also use this for word learning
Theory of mind and word learning
Children learn words based on eye gaze when words are spoken. Example: While child looks at . At the same time someone else is looking directly at == and says “hey look a toma” and later the child is asked to find a toma. They chose ==
Young children’s understanding of an agent’s goal based on eye gaze and action
by 2 months, babies focus on whole face for a longer amount of time in comparison to eyes or mouth. Still focus on eyes longer than mouth.
At the age of three, when shown pictures and asked which human in the picture is staring at you. they select correctly.
By the age of 9 months, they turn in the same direction that another person is looking at.
by the age of three, they use eye direction to figure out an agent’s goal.
Autistic Individuals: what do they succeed and what do they fail
these individuals know: people have desires and desires can cause emotions –> desires met = happy, desires unmet = sad; can decipher direction of eye gaze
these individuals fail at:
- using eye gaze to form joint attention (do not monitor another person’s gaze –> they don’t track where others are looking and use that information; do not point to things to direct others’ attention –> use it for request; fail the “which chocolate with Charlie take?” task)
- reason about other people’s or own old belief (fails Sally-Anne problem or the Smarties task even at older age)
fail at the false belief task, but false belief stories are difficult and have specific logical structure — succeed at false photo –> selective impairment of reasoning about beliefs
False belief, false photograph and autism
Autistic children fail at the false belief but are better than average at the false photo. Ex: A picture is taken of a tree with apples. while the photo develops, wind blows an apple off the tree. they are good at realizing the apple would be in the floor.
Blind Children’s understanding of others’ mental states
Blind children are slower than normal, but do develop normal TOM. Can direct someone else to look at something with “see” and “look”
What do chimps understand of others’ mental states
evidence for: chimps follow gaze direction of others
evidence against: chimps don’t use human gaze to locate food
*very rudimentary TOM, at least when competition is involved –> more like real life situation (used to competition with other chimps as opposed to cooperation with humans)
Dedicated brain regions for theory of mind reasoning
dedicated brain region for TOM in humans; temporal lobe, parietal cortex intersection
shows high response to false belief (in these stories, a character acts based on a false belief); low response to false photo (in these stories, a physical representation is formed, but becomes false)
transient lesion (TMS) to this part of the brain impairs moral reasoning
Children’s theory of mind development: after 3-5 (what do they now succeed)
“3 to 5” shift:
- before (desires & goals) –> people have subjective desires, detection and track eye gaze, use eye gaze to decipher agent’s goal (use for language and drawing attention of other person)
- after (beliefs): know people’s behavior is based on their belief –> subjective belief and false belief; deception; further development: moral reasoning
