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
who investigated altruistic helping?
Warneken and Tomasello (2006)
how did Warneken and Tomasello (2006) investigate altruistic helping?
used 18 month old infants
they were presented with 10 different situations where an adult was struggling to achieve a goal
situations fell into 4 categories: out of reach objects, access obstructed using a physical obstacle, achieving a wrong (correctable) result, and using a wrong (correctable) means
3 phases: experimenter focused on the object only, alternated gaze between the object and the child, and verbalised their problem whilst continuing to alternate gaze
what did Warneken and Tomasello (2006) find about altruistic helping?
infants helped the adult in 6/10 of the tasks (at least one for each category)
22 of the 24 infants helped in at least one of the tasks, usually almost immediately
what did Warneken and Tomasello (2006) find about altruistic helping in chimps?
all three chimpanzees helped reliably in the tasks involving reaching, but were less reliable in helping in the other types of task
children and chimps were both willing to help without a reward or praise
chimps showed understanding of goals or intentions
what is the mentalistic significance of eye gaze?
eyes communicate vital information about an individual’s mental state
it suggests their focus of attention/object of reference/intent to act/feelings
how do infants show early sensitive to gaze?
infants prefer:
-open rather than closed eyes
-direct rather than averted gaze
-begin gaze following at 6 months
who investigated if apes follow gaze?
Povinelli and Eddy, 1996
what did Povinelli and Eddy find about chimps following gaze?
although young chimps appear to spontaneously attend to and follow the visual gaze of others, they simultaneously appear oblivious to the attentional significance of that gaze
who produced positive evidence for apes following gaze?
Kaminski et al, 2004
what did Kaminski et al find out about apes following gaze?
chimps begged more when they were being watched
sensitive to body and face orientation but not eyes
who produced negative evidence for apes following gaze?
Povinelli and Preuss, 1995
what did Povinelli and Preuss find about apes following gaze?
begging is indiscriminate
chimps even begged for food from a blindfolded human
chimps can learn rules about visual perception- but do not always consider the psychological distinction between begging from the blindfolded vs non blindfolded
what gives positive evidence for chimps’ knowledge and perception?
competitive paradigm
auditory perspective taking
what is the competitive paradigm?
chimpanzees can reason about other’s knowledge on the basis of what others have/haven’t seen
who investigated the competitive paradigm?
Hare, Call and Tomasello (2001)
who investigated auditory perspective taking?
Melis, Call and Tomasello (2006)
what was found about auditory perspective taking in apes?
in the presence of a human competitor, chimps preferred to reach through a silent than a noisy tunnel
suggests they are sensitive to what others can hear
can manipulate the auditory perception of a competitor
who investigated false belief for apes?
Call and Tomasello (1999)
how did Call and Tomasello investigate false belief for apes?
man watched as treat hidden under one of two cups
chimp couldn’t see which was which
man leaves
cups are swapped
man returns and points to one cup
ape given a single chance to retrieve
ape scores if they look under the cup the man didn’t point to
none of the apes passed
who investigated false belief of apes in the wild?
Marticorena et al, 2011
what happened when Marticorena et al investigated false belief?
tested Rhesus monkeys in the wild
used a violation of expectancy method
true belief condition: looked for longer when actor fails to look for object in the correct location when they are informed
false belieg condition: no difference in looking time
represent others knowledge but not their personal beliefs
who investigated false beliefs for apes using eye tracking?
Krupenye et al (2016)
how did eye tracking work for apes?
used the anticipatory gaze paradigm
