Task 7 mind reading

Question 1

Piaget (theory of mind)

Answer 1

o argued that mental phenomena are quite confusing for young children, because they are not obvious.
o He focused on two separable aspects of an understanding of mind:
1. Understanding of nature of mental entities (= thoughts, dreams).
2. Use of psychological reasoning to explain human actions (= how intentions explain human acts).
o Problem – Research showed that mentalistic understanding of persons and their actions emerges rapidly in most children. Especially for 3, 4 and 5-­‐year-­‐olds.

Question 2

Mental entities

Answer 2

It reflects the ability to make distinctions between mental and physical representations.
o Contrary to Piaget’s sayings, young children do understand difference between what is mental and what is physically real.
 They understand thinking as a mental, private process

Question 3

Psychological reasoning

Answer 3

Processing of mental states that provide causes and explanations for persons actions

Question 4

Belief-desire psychology

Answer 4

System about reasoning of mind, world and behavior.
 It explains and predicts action regarding what a person thinks, knows and expects, together with what he/she wants, intends and hopes for.
 It also includes emotional reactions resulting from desires, beliefs, preferences and perceptions.

Question 5

Referring to thoughts and belief

Answer 5

At age 3 children start to use words like “think and know”

Question 6

False belief task

Answer 6

Is correctly solved at an age of 4 the easier Sally Anne task is solved with an age of 4 too

Question 7

Surprise (after ToM)

Answer 7

Slightly after understanding false believe they start to understand that surprise depends on the knowing that their expectation of their own world will be disconfirmed (5 years)

Question 8

Deception (after ToM)

Answer 8

5 years old children start to understand and use deception

Question 9

Second order beliefs (after ToM)

Answer 9

thinking about what another person beliefs about he believe of a third person (5years)

Question 10

Three phases of Wellman

Answer 10

o 1. 2 years old theory based on desire psychology, they assume that peoples desire influences their behaviour
o 2. 3 years theory based on belief-desire psychology, they now added the persons beliefs about he world of another person
o 3. 4 years Children acknowledge that beliefs can also have inaccurate interpretations

Question 11

Perner (theory of ToM)

Answer 11

Emphasizes change that happens at age of 4 years, time when children understand false belief
o Metarepresentation: understanding of the distinction between what is being referred to (the referent) and what it is represented as (4 years)

Question 12

Leslie (theory of ToM)

Answer 12

o Metarepresnetation in connection with pretend play, children start to pretend play with an age of 18 months

Question 13

Harris (theory of ToM)

Answer 13

o Simulation: Harris states that children project emotions on others which they know from their selves

Question 14

Understanding of desire and emotions (precursor)

Answer 14

age of 2 children start to use words to describe their own state of mind

Question 15

Distinguishing mental states in language (precursor)

Answer 15

o 3 years olds can distinguish between mental states and external reality

Question 16

Mental concepts in conversation (precursor)

Answer 16

Age of 3

Question 17

Understanding the relationship between seeing and knowing (precursor)

Answer 17

o From 2 years on
o Age of 3 children understand that when they hide something other persons are not able to see it
o Yung children appreciate that different people can have different knowledge about the world, and that some people may have less complete knowledge than others
o About 4 years of age children realize that people have different views on an object that is visible to both

Question 18

Understanding the appearance-reality distinction (pretending) (precursor)

Answer 18

o 3 years old have problems to understand different appearances of an object
o 4 years old pass

Question 19

Predicting behaviour (precursor)

Answer 19

o By age of 3 children understand that people do not only have desires they also have beliefs about the world

Question 20

Joint attention (precursor)

Answer 20

understanding the focus of another person
o Triadic joint attention: involves a third person (12 months)
o Dyadic joint attention: attention between care giver and infant (3 months)

Question 21

Pretend play (precursor)

Answer 21

Arises around 1 year, increasing during the first two yours

Question 22

Desire (precursor)

Answer 22

Show what they want through pointing (2 years)

Question 23

Visual perspective taking (precursor)

Answer 23

o Understanding that two persons can have different perspectives (4-5 years)

Question 24

Domain specific

Answer 24

human properties to understand people mentalistically stem from special knowledge, processes & mechanisms that privilege and shape social learning & understanding  humans especially prepared for social informative acquisition (social referencing)

Question 25

Theory-Theory Account – Wellman 1990 (domain specific)

Answer 25

 Children achieve a coherent understanding of people via everyday theoretical constructs
 Children have progressively more sophisticated theories about the mind (like scientists that try to understand facts by proposing a theory and then on the basis of the theory they predict the existence of other facts and relationships)
 Accumulating data/ information leads to theory change
 Children’s understanding of the mind progresses through several theory changes between ages 2 and 4
1. Simple desire-psychology theory  can’t explain all instances
2. Belief-desire psychology theory

Question 26

Theory of mind Module (Baron-Cohen) (domain specific)

Answer 26

• Specific brain mechanism devoted to understanding of other human being

Question 27

Domain general

Answer 27

knowledge differences arise solely from workings of general processes of cognition and developmental changes within children’s theories of mind are due to quite general developmental changes (memory capacity, abstract reasoning, etc.)

Question 28

Executive Functions Account (domain general)

Answer 28

 Executive function abilities drastically improved between 1&5
 Inhibition – better performance on false-belief task when able to inhibit prepotent tendency to say where the item really is
 Cognitive flexibility – response to false belief task requires flexible, “embedded rules” reasoning (focus in reality = cupboard, focus in character’s belief = item in drawer)

Question 29

Representational-Mind Account – Perner 1991 (domain general)

Answer 29

 Emphasis on major change occurring at 4 years of age
 With increasing age the child’s own representational abilities develop which accounts for theory of mind
 Most important aspect of understanding the mind occurs when a child has acquired the concept of metacognition (= understanding of distinction between what is being referred to and what it is represented as  representation isn’t reality)

Question 30

THEORY OF MIND DEFICIT (DOMAIN SPECIFIC)

Answer 30

 It states that individuals with autism fail to impute mental states to themselves and others.
 This deficit manifests as inability to mentalize, or failure to consider others’ mental states.
 Evidence for hypothesis – Majority of autistic children failed at false-belief tasks.
 Limitation – Does not explain symptoms of autism.

Question 31

EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION THEORY (DOMAIN GENERAL)

Answer 31

This theory came from researchers who noted that symptoms of autism were similar to those associated with specific brain injury.
 It suggests that autism can be explained as a deficit in executive functions in the brain.
 Executive function – Ability to maintain appropriate problem-solving set for attainment of future goal. Behaviors such as planning, impulse control, inhibition of irrelevant responses (Stroop test), set maintenance, organized search and flexibility of thought and action.
 Limitations – Although it can explain features of autism, not all individuals with autism show executive problems and those who do, may have differing profiles of EF. Plus, executive difficulties are not unique to autism.

Question 32

WEAK CENTRAL COHERENCE THEORY (DOMAIN GENERAL)

Answer 32

Theory that explains some of the non-social features of autism, such as attention to acute detail ranging from pedantry to obsession.
 Autism is characterized by strong drive to process things in detail-focused way, rather than the global whole (= weak central coherence).

Question 33

Reduced generalization theory

Answer 33

People with autism have difficulty generalizing newly learned behavior to a new environment. In other words, they fail to see connections, thus failing to generalize something on to a bigger picture,