lecture 3 Flashcards
what are the two different possibilities for theory of mind?
chimpanzee’s mind seems similar to ours because it is similar
cannot help distorting the chimpanzee’s mind and recreate it into our own image
who investigated whether chimpanzee’s have a theory of mind?
Premack and Woodruff (1978)
what did Premack and Woodruff (1978) find about chimpanzee’s theory of mind?
chimpanzees were shown a video of a human actor struggling with various problems
were shown pictures of the solutions to the problem
chimpazee offered correct solutions to an actor’s problems
suggests they could infer the actor’s intentions
what are the two debates for whether apes have a theory of mind?
Povinelli Camp
Tomasello Camp
what is the Povinelli Camp?
chimps do not reason about other’s beliefs or any other mental states
same behaviours, but different underlying psychological mechanisms
what is the Tomasello camp?
chimps have theory of mind in some respects but not others
no evidence about whether they understand false beliefs
chimps understand goals and intentions, and the perceptions/knowledge of others
what is the behavioural abstraction hypothesis?
understanding the surface level of behaviour
form behavioural rules
chimps make predictions about future behaviours that follow from past behaviours, and adjust their own behaviour accordingly
what are beyond behavioural rules?
chimps are highly sociable animals and need to anticipate what others do
observing previous behaviours and deriving a set of behavioural rules enables behavioural predictions
need to anticipate actions in novel situations based on goals and intentions
what is a goal?
what the person is trying to do or achieve
what is an intention?
the action plan chosen for pursuing a goal
who investigated chimp’s intentions?
Buttelmann et al, 2007
what did Buttlemann et al (2007) find out about chimps’ intentions?
6 chimps imitated an actor’s novel action when it was performed with intention, but not when it was due to a physical constraint
understand each other’s goals/intentions
what does altruistic helping require?
cognition
altruistic motivation
what is cognition?
understanding another person’s goals
what is altruistic motivation?
helping others when it doesn’t benefit onself