Task 7 - Mind Reading

Question 1

What is Theory of mind?

Answer 1

• A well organized understanding of how the mind works and how it influences behavior (Siegler)
• Understanding other people as people who have desires, beliefs and their own interpretation of the world (Smith)

Question 2

When does ToM develop?

Answer 2

• ToM develops between ages 3 and 5 years of age
• 3 & 4 year old children do not understand that other people have beliefs as well, which guide their actions and that these beliefs can be different from their own
• In short, children do not distinguish between beliefs and objective reality
• Development of False-belief understanding is not discontinuous
• Although preschoolers fail on false-belief they have some understanding of mental states: understanding desires, emotions etc

Question 3

Criticism on False Belief Tasks

Answer 3

• Not sensitive enough for young children
  –> “Where will Sally look for the marble?”
  “Where will Sally look for the marble first?
• If false belief tasks are presented in a way that facilitate understanding -> some 3-year-olds succeed
• Implicit false belief task

Question 4

What are the precursors of ToM?

Answer 4

example:

• Face perception & gaze following
• Joint attention
• Pretense
• Visual perspective taking
• Appearance-reality
• Desire

Question 5

Face perception & Gaze following

Answer 5

• 12 months old: children show surprise when experimenter act on object he did not gaze at
• 18 month olds use gaze to guide object choice

Question 6

Joint attention

Answer 6

Understanding the focus of another’s attention
- dyadic joint attention:
At 3 months “still-face effect”
At 3 months already very sensitive to few degrees in gaze aversion

• Triadic joint attention: involves a third party
• Starts to emerge around 12 months of age: begin to use own gaze to engage mothers while pointing
• 18 months old reliably determine others focus of attention
• 18 months: use of eye gaze and other directional cues
• 24 months children use gaze to gain info about other’s desire

Question 7

Pretense

Answer 7

• arises around 1st year
• increases during first two years
• dual representation
• • reality
• • world of imagination

Question 8

Desire

Answer 8

• Young infants show what they want through pointing
• 2-year-olds understand people acts in ways that fulfill their desires
• Broccoli experiment

Question 9

Appearance-reality

Answer 9

• 3-year-olds fail
• 4-year-olds pass
• replicated with many other objects

Question 10

Level 1- and 2 perspective taking

Answer 10

• Level 1: understanding that another person sees an object only if the person’s eyes are open and directed toward the object (2-and 3-year-olds)
• Level 2: even though both self and others can see the same object it looks different to people viewing it from different perspectives (4- and 5-year-olds)

Question 11

Two theories about ToM development

Answer 11

• Domain general

- Domain specific

Question 12

Domain general

Answer 12

development of ToM stems from a general skill which has effect on several different areas: ToM abilities, but also understanding of physical objects, language, etc

Question 13

Domain specific

Answer 13

development of ToM stems from special knowledge, special processes and mechanisms that only affect ToMskills

Question 14

Representational mind account

Answer 14

• children with autism fail false-belief tasks but succeed on false photograph task
• -> This suggests that the representational mind account is incorrect

Question 15

Examples - Domain-Specific Theories

Answer 15

Theory theories (Wellman): The child develops step by step a more complex theory about the mind, includes emotions, joint attention etc.
Theory of Mind Module (Baron-Cohen): specific brain mechanism devoted to understanding of other human beings

Question 16

Deception

Answer 16

involves planting a false belief in another person’s mind, and this is only possible if you realize that other people can have false beliefs

Question 17

First order belief

Answer 17

the ability to understand another person’s thoughts

Question 18

second-order belief

Answer 18

the ability to infer what one person thinks about another person’s thoughts

Question 19

Metarepresentation

Answer 19

an understanding of the distinction between what is being referred to (the referent) and what it is represented as
Only when one understands that representations are not copies of reality that you have the concept of metarepresentation (example: pyramid – different views shows different figures)

Question 20

Children have two types of representations when they indulge in pretend play

Answer 20

1. Primary representation: thinking about the banana as a banana)
2. Secondary representation (aka metarepresentations): thinking about the banana as a telephone

Question 21

Three different techniques to measure theory of mind

Answer 21

• Conversation and playing (pretend play)
• Habituation and preferential looking
• Experimental studies (like broccoli test)