Social Cognition: Theory of the Mind

Question 1

What does ‘Theory of Mind’ refer to?

Answer 1

Our personal understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling. Sometimes called ‘mind-reading’.

Question 2

Describe Meltzoff’s study intentional reasoning.

Answer 2

Children of 18 months observed an adult placing beads into a jar. In the experimental condition they appeared to struggle putting the beads into the jar. In the control condition they ease.y put the beads into a jar. In both the children put the beads into the jar without struggling, mimicking the adults intention.

Question 3

What are the ‘false belief tasks’?

Answer 3

Wimmer and Perner developed it in which Maxi left some chocolate in the blue cupboard and left then Maxi’s mother moved it to the green cupboard. They then asked where Maxi would look for the chocolate. 3 year olds said green cupboard but 4 year olds said blue.

Question 4

What is the Sally-Ann study?

Answer 4

Baron-Cohen’s false belief task he studied involving 20 children diagnosed with ASC, 14 with Down’s syndrome and 27 neurotypical.

Question 5

What were the findings of the Sally-Ann study?

Answer 5

85% of neurotypical children correctly identified where Sally would look but only 20% of children with a diagnosis of ASC could correctly identify.

Question 6

What is a problem with the false belief tasks?

Answer 6

Bloom and German have suggested that they have low validity due to 2 reasons:
A child can have well developed ToM but still struggle with false belief tasks.
They require more cognitive abilities eg memory.