Lecture_14_Theory of Mind Flashcards
Cognitive Skills in Social Interaction
- Joint attention
- Cooperative communication
- Dual-level collaboration
Joint Attention
When people purposefully ATTEND to the same things as the people they are interacting with
Cooperative Communication
Communication aimed at SHARING MENTAL STATE regarding things in the shared environment
Dual-Level Collaboration
SHARING A GOAL and acting to achieve it with other people
Social Interaction in Others Animals
Don’t exist
- Evident very early in most children
- Very important for human development
“I think, therefore I am”
“Cogito ergo sum” - Rene Descartes
- A person can never really be sure that our experiences are really what they seem
- A person could be sure of just one thing: whenever I think something, it is me that is thinking it
Cartesian Dualism
A distinction between
- The world of matter
- The world of thought
Theory of Mind
We do act as if people have minds
- We have our own ‘theory of mind’
- That we use to represent the psychological states of others
- High-level executive process, dependent on, but different from our sensation
The Origin of Theory of Mind Research
Chimpanzees
- Showed movie clips a person was struggling to solve a problem
- They consistently chose the photograph that contained the solution
Difference in Theory of Mind between Chimpanzees and Infants
Researchers had buckets on their heads
- Chimpanzees would beg for food whether the researcher can’t see them
- Three-year old human infants could pass this test
False-Belief Tasks
A person demonstrating understanding that other people can have beliefs that are not true
- Non-human apes may indeed understand false belief
- Apes appear to look at the place where they expect the human to look
- Because they think that human character has a false belief
Similarity between Theory of Mind & EF
Mindreading or mentalizing
- Joint Attention Holding attention on something indicated to use by another person
Differences between Theory of Mind & EF
- Theory of Mind necessarily have a SOCIAL component
- Mentalizing about the mind
or somebody else - MOTIVATIONAL, or EMOTIONAL aspects, as we are often mentalizing about the reasons for other people’s behavior, or how they feel
Cool EF
- Dorsolateral prefrontal region
- Response inhibition, working memory, and switching
Hot EF
- Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
- Emotion regulation, motivation, decision making
- Social cognition
Cool Social Cognition
- Cognitive empathy
- Theory of Mind
Hot Social Cognition
- Affective empathy
- Theory of Mind
- Emotion recognition
Smarties Test
The children were only able to distinguish between appearance and reality from about aged 4
1. What they previously thought
- 5+: Smarties
- 5-: Can’t
2. What a different child would think
- 4+: Smarties
- 4-: Can’t
ASD & Theory of Mind
- Poorly on many mindreading tests
- Social communication problems
- Theory of Mind may be a core cognitive problem
- Sally-Anne test
1) ASD 12 years old: failed
2) Typical 4 years old: passed
Representation Change
- The children understood that their own mental contents had changed
- Foam rock tests
- 3-year-old: 50% answered the representational change question correctly
- 5-year-old: 67% answered correctly
The Distinction between Hot and
Cool EF
- Cool: Hayling test
- Hot Theory of Mind tests
- Appear to show separate impairments
How does a theory of mind is achieved?
- Imitation and mirror neurons
- Detection of eye movements
Imitation
- A very high-level form of learning
- A special learning mechanism
- Imitation may be cognitively complex
- Copying a person’s behavior, the visual scene that you observe is completely different to the visual scene you experience. For example, imitation of bowing
Imitation in Animals
Cross-species communication
- It is perhaps only seen when they have been exposed to human culture
- E.g. Orangutans in Indonesia
Mirror Neurons
Cells that respond to either
1. Performing an action
2. Seeing the action being performed by others
- By feeling the connection of their action to our action we can distinguish self and other, as well as empathize, possibly, forming the basis of Theory of Mind
Broken Mirror Theory
1) A deficiency in the function of mirror neurons
2) Prevents their ability to understand imitation
3) A ‘cascade of developmental impairments’
4) Signs and symptoms of ASD
FMRI In ASD that is Inconsistent with Broken Mirror Theory
- Some mirror neurons: Dysfunctional
- Some: Hyperactive in people with ASD
- Amygdala and cerebellum not linked to mirror neurons: Hypoactive
Criticism of Inferring Mirror Neurons to Theory of Mind
- Adults use imitation much less than children
- Domain-general learning mechanisms (conditioning) lead to the development of mirror neurons
Detection of Eye Movements
White sclera of the eye is unique to humans
Why do humans have white sclerae in the eyes?
- Allow other people to see our gaze
- Allow joint attention
- Help us to understand their mental state
Dyadic Interaction
Can tell when another person is looking at us, and vice versa
Triadic Interaction
Indicate which objects or other people are being looked at
Baron-Cohen’s Theory of Mind Mechanism (ToMM)
- Intentionality Detector (ID)
- Eye Direction Detector (EDD)
- Shared Attention Mechanism (SAM)
- Theory of Mind Mechanism (ToMM)
Intentionality Detector (ID)
- Classify behavior as volitional or not. - Can tell whether the thing it is looking at has a GOAL to its action
- Stimuli with direction
Eye Direction Detector (EDD)
- Detect eyes, and what they are doing
- E.g., detecting their gaze
- Dyadic interaction
- Impaired in people with ASD
Shared Attention Mechanism (SAM)
- Gains information about the perceptual state of other people
- From the EDD
- Allow joint attention
- Tells us if we are both attending to the same thing
- Triadic interaction
Theory of Mind Mechanism (ToMM)
- Develops as a consequence of triadic interactions
- Allows the child to understand mental states of others
Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test
- Stimuli: Photographs of the eye region of many different people
- Choices: The mental state of the person
- People with ASD performed this test
very poorly
Criticism of Inferring Eye-Movement and Theory of Mind
- People who are blind from birth still seem to develop the same neurocognitive system for thinking with a Theory of Mind
- Tests that don’t require vision can still assess Theory of Mind
Faux Pas Test
A person accidently does or says something that causes an embarrassing social situation
- Understanding a faux pas requires the recognition that a person may be embarrassed
