S2 W1 Theory of the Mind Flashcards
What is the theory of mind
“the ability to ascribe mental states to oneself and to others” (Wellman, 2002) (thinking about what others are thinking about.)
What does the theory of the mind lead to?
leads to the understanding that mental states do not always accurately reflect reality and the understanding that mental states can be the causes of behavior of other people.
How does false belief task assess thoery of mind?
= Are not inherently more interesting than true beliefs However, they are experimentally convenient as they avoid the problem that many beliefs match up with reality. False belief tasks cannot be passed by substituting one’s own beliefs for those of the characters in the tasks.
What is unexpectd transfer task
Character introduced, event happens, induces true belief, character leave, second event unseen by character, occurs, this makes the belief false. Character returns, question is asked about the belief.
Unexpected transfer task Results
3Y: other reasons for the behaviour, he took the sandwich because his fall on the floor, think pirate in trouble.
5Y understand other can have false belief and their consequence. (thing he’s in the wrong)
7Y: understands it’s not the pirates fault, able to apply his knowledge.
What’s Unexpected Contents Taks?
What’s in the container = smarties (surprising contents are revealed), what would your friend say was in it?
Children can’t predict other people’s mental state, nor acknowledge their own mistaken belief.
What is the age of onset of mental states
1- Emotions = Understood in others by 12M
2- Desires = 18 months
3- Belief = 4 years+
4- Complex belief = 6 years +
Thoery of method development
Children’s ToM understanding is said to be theory-like. Unobservable constructs (such as desires and beliefs) are used to explain human behaviour.
During childhood, children construct an implicit theory about the way minds work. Early, simple views of ToM are revised in the light of new experiences and observations.
Theory theory
locates the source of improvement in children’s knowledge. It assumes that children’s improved ToM performance is caused by a better understanding of mental states.
emotion > desire > belief.
What is false photograph task?
Analogous to the False Belief Task but contains no mental-state component.
3Y: do poorly on this test; 4-5 do better.
Children fail to answer questions about representations correctly (whether in the mind or in a photo). It’s not that they don’t understand mental states per se, but that they find it difficult to reason well about any kind of representation.
False belief task
Teddy is on the table. Sally leaves the room. Teddy is moved to the chair. MEMORY Q: “Where was teddy when Sally left the room?”. TEST Q: “Where does Sally think teddy is?”
Representation
describes how we mentally represent information about the world. Simple representations are fine if we want to think simple thoughts about reality = “The books are on the table”. They’re less helpful for more subtle ideas.
Metarepresentation
Term describes how we mentally represent infromation about thougths, beleifs and desired.
How does family influence thoery of the mind acquisition
children who have siblings (particularly older ones) are more likely to pass FBTs than children without siblings. T
Social interaction can influence children’s conception of minds. Families that talk about (and in terms of) mental states tend to have children that are more successful at FBTs
How does culture influence the acquisition of theory of mind
Tasks: westernized, impact how well non-western people will perform. Language dependent. The age at which better-than-chance performance is reached on ToM tasks varies across cultures between 4 and 7 years. Though specific ages vary, the order in which competences are reached remains the same: emotions, then desires, then beliefs.
