Lecture 5 - Theory of Mind

Question 1

Define theory of mind (ToM).

Answer 1

The ability to attribute mental states and interpret behaviour of others.

Question 2

What happens in the unexpected transfer task with Maxi?

Answer 2

His mum moves his chocolate while he’s playing, children are asked a test, memory and reality question.

Question 3

At what sort of age do children develop ToM?

Answer 3

According to Perner and Gopnik, children undergo a radical conceptual shift at 4.
According to Lewis, 3yos don’t understand the narrative of task or the question.

Question 4

Who devised the deceptive box test and what is it?

Answer 4

Perner et al (1987) - smarties tube with pencil inside. Children under 5 think they always knew a pencil was inside - can’t acknowledge their own belief? (Gopnik)

Question 5

What are the problems with the unexpected transfer task and deceptive box test?

Answer 5

The questions might be ambiguous - when time phrases are used performance improves slightly.
Also it may be that children under 4 just don’t understand the task/question.

Question 6

What did Wellman et al (2001) do?

Answer 6

Carried out a meta-analysis of false belief studies, found that 3.5yos performed below chance and 4+ above chance.

Question 7

What did Wimmer and Hartl (1991) do?

Answer 7

Found that children weren’t misunderstanding questions on deceptive box task - used ‘right now’, state change and silly puppet.

Question 8

What did Onishi and Baillargeon (2005) do?

Answer 8

Used 15mos and a novel nonverbal task to show that they COULD predict an actor’s behavior on the basis of her true or false belief about a toy’s hiding place (either a yellow or green box) by seeing where they looked.

Question 9

What is the triad of impairment in autism according to Wing and Gould (1979)?

Answer 9

• Socialisation
• Communication
• Imagination

Question 10

Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) found that…?

Answer 10

Children with autism have difficulty developing ToM.