Social cognition (Theory of mind)

Question 1

What is theory of mind?

Answer 1

• Theory of mind refers to the ability to think about mental states, both your own and those of others. It allows you to understand what other people are thinking.

Question 2

What can a child do when they develop theory of mind?

Answer 2

• Attribute mental states such as beliefs and intentions to other people.
• Predict and interpret the behaviour of others.
• Understand that their actions are motivated by their thoughts, social competence and emotions.

Question 3

Theory of mind, and social competence (relationship)

Answer 3

• ToM plays an important role in social competence; it helps us to build social relationships and to solve interpersonal conflicts.
• Having an accurate idea of what other people are thinking allows us to respond appropriately.

Question 4

The development of theory of mind

Answer 4

• Babies are not born with a ToM; it starts to develop when a child is around 3-5 years old.
• As a child gains experience with social interactions (through play, stories, relationships) they develop insight into how other people’s thinking may differ from their own.
• ToM skills improve with age and are acquired in a standard order.

Question 5

What do children understand (ToM)?

Answer 5

1. The reasons why people might want something might differ.
2. People can have different beliefs about the same thing.
3. People may not understand, or have the knowledge that something is true.
4. People can hold false beliefs about the world.
5. People can have hidden emotions (they might act one way whilst feeling another way).

• Children who are better able to think about what other people are thinking tend to have stronger social abilities.

Question 6

How is ToM researched?

Answer 6

• ToM is investigated using various ‘mind reading’ tasks, including false-belief tasks and the eyes task.

Question 7

False-belief tasks: Wimmer & Perner

Answer 7

• The goal of false-belief tasks is to get children to make inferences about what someone else is thinking when each person has access to different information.
• These tasks work on the basis that the ability to attribute false beliefs in others is considered a major milestone in the formation of the ToM.

Question 8

Who did Wimmer and Perner study?

Answer 8

• They told 3-4 year olds a story where Maxi left his chocolate in a GREEN cupboard, in the kitchen and then went outside.
• Later, Maxi’s mum used some of the chocolate in her cooking and then put the rest in the BLUE cupboard.

Question 9

What were the children asked (Wimmer & Perner)?

Answer 9

• Children were asked where Maxi would look for his chocolate when he comes back from playing outside.
• Most 3 year olds incorrectly said he would look in the BLUE cupboard- they assumed that Maxi knows what they know.
• Most 4 year olds correctly identified the GREEN cupboard- acknowledging that Maxi didn’t have the same knowledge as they did.
• This suggests that a child has a ToM at 4 years old, but not at 3.

Question 10

False-belief tasks-the Sally- Anne studies: Baron-Cohen et al

Answer 10

• Children are shown two dolls (Sally and Anne).
• Sally has a basket and Anne has a box.
• Sally places a marble in her basket and then leaves the room.
• While she is gone, Anne takes the marble from the basket and puts it in the box.
• When Sally returns, children who have watched this scenario are asked where they think Sally will look for the marble.

Question 11

Pass/ not pass the Sally and Anne test

Answer 11

• Children pass the test if they say Sally will look in the basket. This demonstrates that these children understand that Sally holds a false belief about where the marble really is.
• Children who say that the marble is in the box do not pass the test. They fail to demonstrate their own understanding that Sally’s knowledge is different from their own.
• this study has been replicated many times and findings show that children aged 4 and above succeed at the task. This has led psychologists to conclude that at this age children undergo a shift in their understanding of the mind, they develop a ToM.

Question 12

Evaluation of false-belief tasks (difficulty- beliefs)

Answer 12

• False belief tasks are difficult because they require a child to reason about a belief that is false, and this contradicts what they have mostly been taught, that beliefs are real. This is a problem because the tasks depend on abilities other than ToM.

Question 13

Evaluation of false-beliefs (difficulty- skills)

Answer 13

• The tasks are also difficult because they depend on attentional and linguistic skills that may go beyond what a 1,2 or 3 year old can cope with.
• This may mean that failure on these tasks may not be due to a lack of ToM, but a deficit in memory or another cognitive ability, so although these tasks have been used as an accepted tool for measuring ToM for many years, they may lack internal validity.

Question 14

Evaluation of false-beliefs (O’Neil)

Answer 14

• Psychologists have suggested that there is more to ToM than passing the false belief task, O’Neil has shown that 2 year olds are able to modify their behaviour according to the knowledge states of their parents.
• This suggests that children of his age have an appreciation of the minds of others, and that they fail the false belief task because of general task demands, not because they lack a ToM.

Question 15

Theory of mind as an explanation of autism (What is autism?)

Answer 15

• Autism is a developmental disorder that results from a very specific form of impaired cognitive functioning that causes ‘mindblindness’.

Question 16

What do psychologists suggest about those with autism?

Answer 16

• Psychologists have suggested that individuals with autism do not develop a theory of mind so cannot understand the mental states of other people.

This means that they:
- Have problems taking the perspective (or point of view) of others.
- Cannot understand other people’s emotions and intentions.
- Tend to take literal interpretations.

• Psychologists believe that these difficulties come from a failure of an innate theory of mind mechanism (ToMM)

Question 17

Baron-Cohen (autism research)

Answer 17

• Used false belief task to determine how children with autism performed compared to children with Down’s syndrome and neurotypical children.
• They gave the task to the experimental group: 20 autistic children, and to the control group, made up of 27 non-autistic children and 14 children with down syndrome.

Question 18

Baron-Cohen (autism research/ findings)

Answer 18

• They found that about 85% of neurotypical and Down’s syndrome children were able to answer the task correctly, compared to only 20% of children diagnosed with autism.
• Baron & Cohen argued that this difference showed that autism involves of ToM deficit and that this may offer a complete explanation for autism.

Question 19

Evaluation of ToM as an explanation for autism (high-functioning autism)

Answer 19

• One problem with B-C’s theory is that adults with autism can succeed on false belief tasks, this challenges the idea that autism can be explained by ToM deficits.
• It could be the case that individuals with high-functioning autism have a ToM.

Question 20

Evaluation of ToM as an explanation for autism (The Eyes task)

Answer 20

• B-C et al developed a more challenging task to asses ToM in adolescents and adults. The Eyes task involves reading complex emotions in pictures of faces.
• Individuals were shown two pictures of eyes and asked to select one of two emotions that were being represented.

Question 21

Findings of the Eye task- B-C et al

Answer 21

• B-C et al found that many autistic adults without a learning disability struggled with the Eyes task and scored lower than neurotypical participants.
• This supports the idea that ToM deficits might be a cause of autism.

Question 22

Eye task vs False-belief tasks

Answer 22

• The Eye task has higher internal validity than false-belief tasks, because it is thought to actually test ToM, whereas other tasks may actually be testing perspective-taking instead of ToM.
• These are cognitively two different abilities, but false-belief tasks do not distinguish between them.

Question 23

Evaluation of ToM as an explanation for autism (complete explanation?)

Answer 23

• ToM as an explanation of autism explains why autistic individuals find social interactions and communication difficult, giving this theory real-world relevance, however it does not offer a complete explanation of autism.
• As research has shown, not all autistic individuals have difficulties with ToM and ToM difficulties are not limited to autistic individuals.