lecture 2 Flashcards
what is theory of mind?
the insight that people hold mental states, and these govern behaviour
allows us to make sense of the social world by predicting and explaining people’s actions
what is desire based theory of mind?
do children understand that other people’s desires can differ from theirs
who conducted the broccoli/crackers study?
Repacholi and Gopnik (1997)
what was the procedure of Repacholi and Gopnik’s broccoli/crackers study?
children preferred crackers
adults acted as though they preferred the broccoli
asked the child to give them either food
what were the results of Repacholi and Gopnik’s broccoli/crackers study?
18 month olds but not 14 month olds understood that the experimenter’s desired food differed from theirs
understand that desire is a subjective mental state which differs between people
what is belief based theory of mind?
distinction between the mind and the world
understand that a person has their own representation of the world
how can we test if someone has theory of mind?
false belief test
what is a false belief test?
tests whether a child can represent what another person believes in contrast to their own beliefs/reality
what is a true belief task?
tests whether a child can represent another person’s beliefs when that belief matches their own beliefs or reality
who conducted the unexpected transfer task method?
Wimmer and Perner (1983)
what happens in the unexpected transfer task method?
Maxi puts his chocolate in the cupboard
goes to play outside
Mom moves it to the fridge
test question= ‘Where will Maxi look for his chocolate?’
what are the results of the unexpected transfer task?
> 5 years old= Maxi will look in the cupboard
<5 years old= Maxi will look in the fridge
what happens in the Sally Ann task?
child is shown two dolls= one called Sally and one called Ann
Sally puts a box in her box then goes and plays outside
Ann takes this box out and puts it in her basket
child asked where Sally will think the box is
what happens in the deceptive box task?
shown a box of smarties, but there are actually pencils inside it
what did Perner et al (1987) find out about the deceptive box task?
asked children what they think is inside the tube/what is actually inside the tube/what will your friend think is inside the box
what did Gopnik and Astington (1988) find out about the deceptive box task?
when you first saw the tube, before we opened it, what did you think was inside
3-4 year olds have difficulties acknowledging false beliefs in others, and their own prior false beliefs
at what age do children usually fail false belief tasks?
3
at what age do children usually pass false belief tasks?
4 years old
what age are children said to acquire a theory of mind?
age 4
what happened in Wellman, Cross and Watson’s study (2001)?
meta-analysis of 178 studies
support for substantial developmental progress over preschool years
what did Wellman, Cross and Watson (2001) suggest improves performance for theory of mind?
deceptive motive
active participation
salience of mental state
what did Wellman, Cross and Watson (2001) suggest has no impact on theory of mind performance?
type of task
type of question
nature of the protagonist or object
what were the effect of variable manipulations on theory of mind performance?
although manipulating certain variables improved performance, this happened across all ages, not just younger children
none of the variable manipulations improved performance of 3 year olds above chance
who conducted cross cultural comparisons?
Callaghan et al, 2005
what did Callaghan find out about cross cultrual comparisons?
despite leading different lives, children in industrialised societies and those in more rural societies show similar developmental shifts between 3 and 5 years
how does social experience contribute to theory of mind development?
helps understanding of mental states when we interact with other people?
how does biological maturation contribute to theory of mind development?
improvement in executive functioning means children can express their understanding of mental states
who investigated how experience can contribute to theory of mind development?
Harris, 1999