PSY1004 SEMESTER 2 - WEEK 1

Question 1

define theory of mind

Answer 1

ability to ascribe mental states to one’s self and to others eg: I believe, I think, why is that person staring at me

Question 2

why is theory of mind difficult

Answer 2

lead to understanding that mental state not always accurately reflect reality, understanding mental state can be cause of behaviour in others
info can be vague, not relevant, incomplete

Question 3

how is theory of mind judgements made

Answer 3

make complex judgement on limited info, interpret mental state depending on background knowledge- quick heuristics which are generally accurate

Question 4

explain how rock,paper,scissors is example of recursive thinking (ToM) about others mental states

Answer 4

if we can figure out info about opponents plan, or mislead them our odds go up
use info about past decision to make decision on what next t choose. but if opponent knows that you know this, this impacts their move also

Question 5

how are theorys of mind acquired

Answer 5

from infancy, our understandings of others driven by intention (unlikely its explicit awareness as no insight into mental state), explicit mental state awareness understanding emerges 12months- 6 years

Question 6

why do young children struggle to understand mental states

Answer 6

not physical (they’re insubstantial)
frequently non-obvious
rapidly changing
often depends on real-world knowledge

Question 7

how do we use our own POV in theory of mind

Answer 7

usually own thought corresponds with others - use own POV and generalise it

Question 8

how can own POV usage in theory of mind be used to understand children

Answer 8

asking child about friends mental state are difficult- they probably extend own response to friend but genuine insight into child’s understanding of mental states is only apparent when mental state of others differs from own

Question 9

explain how newborn infants orient towards human faces, showing precursors to mental state understanding

Answer 9

6months follow others gaze, 1 year share mutual gaze and use protodeclarative (point to draw attention to environments feature) to manipulates others attention so you both processes same thing

Question 10

explain how research into 9-month infants show humans as goal-orientated agents

Answer 10

habituated to adult reaching for 1/2 toys.
swap toys then infant either saw same (to a new to toy) or different reach (to the same toy)
look longer when adult reach for other toy event though same gesture they had been habituated for, suggesting understand people act intentionally (goal-directed beh) and take into account mental state when are observing others actions

Question 11

how is ToM mental states used to learn language - give research including showing objects, and ascribing random names

Answer 11

(Tomasello, 1995) showed infants 2 objects never seen, adults referred as random names and asked infant to pass, and age 18months able to use where adult looked to work out what to pass

Question 12

how it ToM mental state awareness used to learn language - explain research study using 14/18months infants regarding food groups

Answer 12

show infant 2 food items (broccoli- unliked and goldfish crisps- liked). adults pretended to eat broccoli and like, put hand equistant and asked to be given one adult likes- handed broccoli

Question 13

what can 2 and 3 year old infants do for theory of mind

Answer 13

2- explicitly contrast desires
3- spontaneously use words like think, know

Question 14

what is age of onset for understanding emotion in other

Answer 14

12 months

Question 15

what is age of onset for desires understood in others

Answer 15

18 months

Question 16

what is age of onset for belief

Answer 16

4 years

Question 17

what is age of onset of complex belief

Answer 17

6+ years

Question 18

name 3 factors that can influence ToM acquisition

Answer 18

family, culture, EF

Question 19

explain how family can influence theory of mind acquisitions

Answer 19

childs with siblings more likely to pass false belif task than without, suggesting social interactions influence childs concepts of mind.
family that talk about mental state have child more successful at false belief task (how did that make her feel?)
link to Vygotsky ZPD- older sibling helps child achieve

Question 20

how does culture influence theory of mind acquisition

Answer 20

many ToM measures are language dependent, so age where better-than-chance performance reached on ToM tasks varies 4-7year
but order in which competency reached is same = emotion, desire, belief

Question 21

explain how EF influences theory of mind acquisition

Answer 21

stronger IC do better on measure of false belief
EF and ToM emerge at same age (direction of causality unclear)
IC help child demonstrate understanding of minds (but more to ToM than just wrong response inhibition)

Question 22

explain ‘Theory’ theory (developing theory of mind)

Answer 22

locates source of improvement in childs knowledge, and assumes childs improved ToM due to better understanding of mental states- first mental state to be understood are ones easiest when explaining (emotion-desire-belief)

Question 23

outline false photograph task (Zaitchik, 1990)

Answer 23

teddy on table and photo taken, teddy moved to chair, memory question (where was teddy when photo was taken), test question (wheres teddy in photo), 3 years perform bad, 4/5 perform better, fail to answer questions about representations correctly (whats in mind/photo)

Question 24

outline false belief task (Zaitchik, 1990)

Answer 24

teddy on table, adult leaves room, teddys moved to chair, memory question (where was teddy when adult left room), test question (where does adult think teddy is)
3 years do bad, 4/5 better due to representation

Question 25

define representation (ToM)

Answer 25

how we mentally represent info about world

Question 26

define metarepresentation

Answer 26

how we mentally represent info about thought, belief, desire
“he thinks books on table” compared to simple representation (books on table)

Question 27

contrast simple subtle ideas representations

Answer 27

simple representations are fine for simple thoughts (book on table)
subtle idea need more than simple (I doubt books on table)- metarepresentation

Question 28

how does representations explain failure on false photograph task

Answer 28

mental state hard for children to think about as difficulties with reasoning about representation

Question 29

evaluate false belief task

Answer 29

methodologically useful (avoid problems that many belief true- cannot be passed by substituting own beliefs onto characters)
important to help child gain true understandings

Question 30

outline unexpected transfer task

Answer 30

introduce character, event happens (induces true belief), character leaves. second event (unseen by character) makes false belief. character returns, question asked about characters belief
eg: sam likes chocolate, puts chocolate on table, leaves. wind knocks chocolate onto floor. Josh appears and put his chocolate on table, Sam returns and takes Josh chocolate as beliefs it is his
3 year old believes Sam will take chocolates from floor, 5 believe take Joshs but dont understand consequence

Question 31

why is flexible mental states understanding useful

Answer 31

empathy, planning, deception (avoidance of being decieved), learning, dealing with peers = understanding someone can make genuine mistakes which needs to be taken into account when deciding consequences

Question 32

outline unexpected contents task (deceptive box test) - Gopnik & Astington, 1988

Answer 32

whats in this smarties tube- researcher shows unexpected contents (paperclips)
ask what they thought was in it, and what their friend would say would be in it
self- paperclips
friend- smarties (incorrect- cannot predict others mental state or acknowledge own mistake belief)

Question 33

do infants understand false beliefs- outline stage theory

Answer 33

when performing false beliefs task, either answer in/correct. if development were gradual, would appear to occur in stages on false belief test so instead of focusing on child passing/failing false belief test should see if child answering right increases gradually between age 3-5
longitudinal studies indicates numver of false belief test child likely to apss increases with age

Question 34

outline gaze-following ToM study in 15month infants, using violation of expectancy paradigm (Onishi & Baillargeon)

Answer 34

infants habituate to actor reaching into 1/2 box to retrieve object then object remains in same location or moved (without actor seeing move)
infants watch where actor next reach
look longer when actor reach to where object is than to old location- suprise as actor beliefs different to action

Question 35

outline evidence showing 18months understanding others false belief using wooden pins to unlock box (Buttelmann 2009)

Answer 35

shown 2 box, shown how to unlock/lock, actor put toy into box
false belief condition- actor leave room, another enter and move toy into second box
true belief condition- actor sees other move the toy
when return, try to open original box, fail, asks infant for help
false belief assumes adult want toy so open new locations box
true belief knew actor saw move so assume wanted to open new box for different reason

Question 36

what is weakness of false belief/violations of expectancty research

Answer 36

age 18 month appear to understand others mental states but age 3 fail false belief task
suggests 2 distinct system for mental states dealing:
one system (infants) = fast, simple, implicit, automatic
other (4) = slow, accurate, explicit, conceptual shift equips child with representational theory of mind allowing them to acknowledge false belief