Lecture 7 - Theory of mind Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the 3 definitions of the theory of mind?

A
  • The ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others (Premack & Woodruff 1978)
  • ‘Theory of mind underlies the ability to explain, predict and interpret actions and speech by attributing mental states - such as beliefs, desires, intentions and emotions - to oneself and to other people’ (Astington & Hughes 2013)
  • This involves understanding alternative perspectives and decentring from egocentric representations (Piaget)
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2
Q

Failures in theory of mind?

A
  • Children need exposure and experience of the world to develop this
  • A good e.g. is hide and seek
  • Young children often stand in plain sight and cover their eyes
  • Here they fail to appreciate others can see when they can’t
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3
Q

What is false belief?

A
  • the understanding that someone can have a different view to your own
  • demonstrating false belief shows theory of mind
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4
Q

The maxi task - Wimmer and Perner?

A
  • children are told a story about a boy called Maxi, they see toy characters and cupboards too
  • maxi’s puts chocolate into a cupboard but his mum moves it
  • younger children can’t work out that Maxi doesn’t know it has moved – they can’t assign a false belief to him
  • the conclusion is that Theory of Mind develops at 5 years or more
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5
Q

Sally Anne task?

A
  • Sally puts a ball in her basket
  • Then she leaves
  • Anne moves the ball to a box
  • Where will Sally look for the ball?
  • Results: 3 year olds fail but 4 year olds pass
  • Conclusion: the Sally-Ann task suggests that the false belief aspect of theory of mind develops at 4 years
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6
Q

The smarties task?

A
  • Child sees Smarties tube
  • E: “What’s in the box?”
  • C: “Sweets”
  • E shows C that it actually contains pencils
  • E: “When your friend comes in I’m going to show her this box. What will she think is in the box?”
  • C: 3 yrs: “pencils”. 4 yrs: “sweets”
  • E: “What did you think was in the box before it was opened?”
  • C: 3 yrs: “pencils”. 4 yrs: “sweets”
  • Conclusion: The false belief aspect of ToM, and the ability to have insight into one’s own prior beliefs (‘representational change’) develop at 4 years
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7
Q

What is the smarties task measuring?

A
  • False belief: He thinks this is X but I think it’s Y
  • Representational change: I once thought X but now I think Y
  • Appearance-reality: This looks like X but in fact is Y
  • Performance on a number of tasks suggests that there might be a universal, stage-like development of theory of mind at around 4-5 years
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8
Q

What is a problem with these tasks?

A
  • they aren’t straightforward as we have:
    -> multiple objects
    -> complex sentences
    -> people coming and going
    -> often run by an unfamiliar adult
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9
Q

Woodward?

A
  • looked at if infants attend to aspects of an action that are related to the goals of the actor
  • a 9 month old baby watches a hand reaching for an object - then the hand reaches for the same object (goal) in a different location or a different object (goal) in the same location
  • results: 9-month-olds look longer to the new goal than the new location, 5-month-olds do not show these effects
  • conclusion: By 6-9 months, infants perceive not just movement paths, but the relation between an human agent and a goal
  • they seem to infer the intentions of the actor (their mental state)
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10
Q

False belief in infancy - Onishi & Baillargeon?

A
  • Object moves into yellow box, and actor sees the move so has a true belief that it’s in the yellow box
  • Object moves into yellow box & back to green, actor does not see the move, so has a false belief that it’s in the yellow box
  • On the test trial, the infant either sees the actor look in the green box, or in the yellow box
  • In the crucial false belief conditions, will she look longer if the actor looks in the correct box, or in the box where the actor thinks it is?
  • Results: babies look longer if the actor looks in the correct box, they expected the actor to look in the incorrect box because they thought the actor had a false belief
  • So 15 month olds can notice and learn that someone has a false belief (“it’s in the yellow box”), and use that to predict their behavior (“she should look in the yellow box”)
  • If the actor’s behavior goes against that prediction (she looks in the green box), the baby seems surprised (looks longer)
  • This study suggests that infants of 15 months possess theory of mind
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11
Q

Dualist theory - Clements & Perner?

A
  • looks at implicit vs explicit theory of mind
  • implicit TOM emerges before 4 years, looking time, pretend play, deception
  • explicit emerges at 4 years, verbal performance only
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12
Q

The duple task?

A
  • 3.5 year olds in this experiment, 80% failed the Smarties task, but 80% passed the Duplo task
  • When the Duplo girl disappeared from the scene, 80% failed it, so keeping track of perspective is crucial
  • When they made a verbal response, 80% failed it, so avoiding the pull of the real is crucial
  • There is no discontinuity in development, but a perspective-tracking system present early on that is initially fragile, this argues against dualist theories
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