Task 7 Flashcards
Mind Reading
Definition ‘Theory of Mind’
- When does it develop?
- around 3-5 years
- “appreciating that other people have a set of beliefs and that everyone may have a different set of beliefs; predicting another person’s behavior from knowing that person’s beliefs and intentions”
- a person’s set of beliefs about the world = their (mental) representation of the world
Solving the False-Belief Task
- 3 years: usually not able
- 4 years: not always able
- 6 or 8 years: usually able
distinguishing mental states in language
- 2 years: use of words that refer to internal states of perception or emotion (‘want’, ‘taste’)
- 3 years: use of cognitive terms (‘know’, ‘think’)
understanding the relationship between seeing and knowing
- 2 years: some understanding of relationship
- 3 years: realize relationship between seeing an object and knowing about an object
understanding appearance-reality distinction
- 3 years: do not realize that the appearance of an object is only a representation
- 4 years: begin to appreciate that an object can be represented as both what it looks like and what it is
predicting behavior
- 2 years: people have desires that influence behavior
- 3 years: understand that people have desires and beliefs about the world —> appreciate the relationship between a true belief and behavior
theory of mind after 4 years of age
- 5 years: i did not appreciate that another person has to interpret a picture and that such an interpretation cannot be predicted
Theories abut the development of understanding the mind
- ‘desire-psychology’
- 2 years
- assume that people’s desire influences behavior
Theories abut the development of understanding the mind
- ‘belief-desire psychology’
- 3 years
- take into account a person’s desires, and belieft about the world —> some awareness that other people can have false interpretations of the world
Theories abut the development of understanding the mind
- metarepresentation
- 4 years
- constantly adopt a theory that includes the crucial realization that beliefs are interpretations, and therefore may be inaccurate
- primary representation: banana = banana
- secondary representation / metarepresentation: banana = telephone
Autism
- two main features:
(1) ‘autistic aloneness’ —> inability to relate to others
(2) ‘desire for sameness’ —> often become upset by changes of sourrounding or routine - DSM criteria:
(1) qualitative impairments in social interaction
(2) qualitative impairments in communication
(3) restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities
Autism and the Theory of Mind
- troubles with false belief task —> often fail
- deficit in understanding mental representations
individual differences in solving a false-belief task
- age in which children solve tasks varies a lot in preschool children
- more likely to pass with older siblings or in general more contact with older people
- children’s participation in pretend play is associated with learning about mental states
- differences in how families talk about feelings predictive of children’s ability to identify and understand emotions
Later developments
- 4 or 5 years: understanding of mind and of persons continues to develop in important fashions
- 3- and 4-year-olds: know that thinking is an internal mental event and that it is different from seeing, talking, or touching and object
- 6 to 8 years: consistently judge that people are thinking when engaged in tasks such as pretending, reading, listening, and talking
Earlier developments
- infants preferentially attend to faces
- 7 months: infants appear surprised when an object begins moving without some external force causing them to, but not if people do so
- 6-12 months: understand that people possess internal intentional states (goals, perceptions, desires, and emotions)
