Ontogeny of Mentalising Flashcards
Define theory of mind
The insight that people hold mental states and that these given behaviour.
Having an understanding of mental states that allow us to make sense of the social world.
Desire Based ToM is an early or late theory?
Early
Define desire based ToM
Ability to understand that peoples desires are idiosyncratic and constantly changing.
How old were the children in Repacholi & Gopnik (1997) study who demonstrated desire based ToM with broccoli and crackers
18m
At 14m didn’t understand the experimenters different desire.
Belief based ToM is a later theory of mind that distinguishes between
Mind and World
Define belief based ToM
Understanding that a person has a representation of the world, the contents of which may be different to the world itself.
A belief based ToM involved a shift between
Situational based to representational based understanding of behaviour.
Name the three classic examples of the false belief task:
oUnexpected transfer task (Wimmer & Perner, 1983)
oDeceptive box task (Gopnik & Astington, 1988)
oState change test (Wimmer & Hartl, 1991)
At what age do children typically pass, and typically fail FB tasks?
4 year olds pass
3 year olds fail
What explains the difference between 4 year old and 3 year old performance on the FB task?
A radical conceptual shift and stage like development
Define the difference between competence and performance
oCompetence = conceptual understanding required to solve the problem
oPerformance = other cognitive skills required to access and express understanding (e.g. ability to remember key info, focus attention, comprehend the question)
What is one explanation given to children failing FB tasks?
Inability to comprehend the story.
At 3 years old children may have ToM but what prevents this from being demonstrated on a FB task?
Performance limits competence
What are the two debates regarding ToM acquisition
Boosters vs Scoffers
Define Boosters
early onset, early competence which is masked by performance limitations.
3 year olds should perform above chance
Define Scoffers
Delayed onset, conceptual change performance changes from incorrect to systematically above change, task demands should not influence performance.
Wellman Cross and Watson 2001’s meta-analyse found that what aged children?
4+ above chance performance
-3 bellow chance performance
Wellman Cross and Watson’s 2001 meta-analyse concluded that
Changing the task improves performance at all ages, not just 3 years and under
Callaghan et al. 2005 found universality with their being a radical shift between which years? leading to improved FB performance
3 and 5
Experience influences ToM development, Harris 1999 found that conversations about what improved ToM
Other peoples persepectives
Children with older siblings show earlier ToM found by:
Perner, Ruffman and Leekham 1994
Children who’s parents talk to them about mental states show earlier FB, found by:
Dunn et al. 1991
Ruffman, Slade, Crowe 2002
Deaf children without signing parents show a developmental delay in what?
ToM, found by Peterson and Siegel 1995
Theory of Mind scale developed by Wellman and Liu 2004 follows 5 steps:
Diverse Desires Diverse Beliefs Knowledge-access False Belief Hidden Emotion
Wellman et al. 2006 found that children in Western cultures followed the above scale
DD>DB>KA>FB>HE
Wellman et al. 2006 found that Chinese and Iranian children from collectivist cultures developed in a different order:
DD>KA>DB>FB>HE
The role of executive functioning has been argued to influence childrens failures on?
ToM, issues with translating conceptual knowledge.
What are the 3 key types of executive functions?
Inhibition
Cognitive Flexibility
Working Memory
Which executive function influences childrens performance on ToM
Inhibition; ability to surpass unwanted responses and ignore distractions information.
Describe the bear dragon task
Like Simon says the bear copies but the dragon does not copy, so you have to suppress the copying response.
Executive functioning is critical is the child is supposed to pass
False belief
What part of the brain is important in executive functioning
Frontal lobes
Frontal lobes develop seems to link with executive functioning at what ages?
3 - 6 years
Inhibitory control may be crucial in developing which factors of mental state knowledge
Emergence and Expression
Define Explicit and Implicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge
- knowledge easily accessible to the child
- Measure via elicited response, e.g. verbal answer to a question
Implicit knowledge
- Knowledge the child is unaware of
- Measure via spontaneous response
Implicit understanding of FB was studied by Molle et al. 2016 who measured the Cookie Monster and found what?
Greater instances of expressed tension in the false belief
at 3 years old
Implicit understanding studied by Clements and Perner 1994 had an implicit and explicit measure for the mouse and cheese and found:
86% of children 2 years and 11 months showed pattern indicative of FB understanding
A large gap between implicit and explicit understanding at what age?
2 years 11 months
Southgate Senju and Csibra 2007 looked at anticipatory looking in 2 year olds and found?
2 years and younger - Earlier FB understanding than Clements and Perner 1994.
Onishi and Baillargeon 2005 used a total non-verbal test in 15 month olds and found?
FB understanding in 15 month old babies.
Time studies with infants are refered to as
Violation expectancy method
The violation expectancy method shows that the child is surprised if
They look longer at inconsistent event, suggesting some knowledge of what is happening.
