Task 7: Theory of Mind Flashcards
Theory of mind
Understanding other people as people who have desires, beliefs and their own interpretations of the world and that it can differ from ours.
- understanding this helps us make sense of what others say and how they act
Mental representations of the world
persons’s set of beliefs about the world
False belief
incorrect belief in comparison to reality
False belief task
Children hear a story about a boy that puts chocolate in a ‘blue’ cupboard and while he was out of the room, his mother puts it in a ‘green’ cupboard. Then, they are asked to predict where he would look for the chocolate when back into room.
Sally-Anne Task
Simpler version of false-belief task, in which children are shown two dolls, Sally and Anne. The former puts marble in her basket and leaves and while she is absent, Anne takes the marble and puts it in the box. Then Sally returns, and children are asked where she would look for her marble.
Why is the Sally Anne task better?
results are not biased by length of story and amount of information to memorize
At what ages do children succeed in false belief tasks?
- if story features are more salient and the story is shorter, 4 year old’s could succeed
- 3 year old’s always fail
Smarties task
Children are shown closed box of Smarties and asked to say what is inside, which is actually pencils. Children are then asked to predict what another child would say there is inside. The correct answer is ‘sweets’ (3 year olds fail and 4 year olds pass)
Distinguishing mental states in language
- from age 2
- by age 3
From age of 2 – Children use words that refer to internal states of perception or emotion, such as ‘see’ and ‘want’.
By age of 3 – Children use cognitive terms, such as ‘know’, ‘think’ and ‘remember’. They can distinguish between mental states and external reality (physical).
Understanding the relationships between seeing and knowing
(from age 2) + demonstration
Children understand relationship between seeing and knowing.
Demonstration – They were asked to show another person a picture inside bottom of a box. They realized the need to angle the box so that another person could see inside.
Understanding the relationships between seeing and knowing
(by age of 3) + demonstration
Children understand that different people can have different view of same object.
- Demonstration: card with a cat drawn on one side a dog on the other was placed with one side facing child and the other, the experimenter. Children were asked what each person could see.
- > Results show that they understand that different people have different knowledge about world and that some may have less complete knowledge than others.
Understanding the relationships between seeing and knowing
(at about age 4) + demonstration
Children realize that people may have different views of object that is equally visible to both.
- Demonstration: Child is sitting opposite the experimenter and between them, there is a picture, placed flat, of side view of a turtle. Children were asked which of two views they saw (either ‘standing on its feet’ or ‘upside down’) and which the experimenter saw.
- Only at age 4 were they able to understand that their view and that of experimenter’s were different
Understanding appearance-reality distinction
- > demonstration
- > 3 vs 4 year old
Young children have difficulty in tasks that involve distinguishing appearance and reality.
-Demonstration: Children were shown sponge that looks like rock. From a distance it was seen as rock and when they could feel it, they discovered it was a sponge. They were asked ‘what does it look like?’ and ‘what is it really?’
- 3 year olds only consider one interpretation
- 4 year olds understand one interpretation is false hence the difference between true and flase beliefs
Predicting behaviour
- age 2
- age 3
- Age of 2: understand that people have desires, and these can influence the way they behave
- Age of 3: Children understand that people have beliefs about world, in addition to desires
From what age do children understand that people’s behaviour may be based on incorrect assumptions about the world?
from age 4
Name and explain 3 factors that influence when children succeed on false belief tasks
- Language ability – Development of theory of mind is related to language development.
- Siblings – Between 2 and 4 years, child-child interaction increases. Children talk more about beliefs with siblings and friends than with mothers;
- Family size – Children that interact with older children and adults have better chance of developing theory of mind skills at earlier age.
When do children gain an understanding of false belief?
between the age of 4 and 5
At age __ children realize that emotional responses are also based on person’s representation
-> give demonstration
age 5
-> A character named Ellie only likes to drink Coke. She was given can of Coke with, unknown to her, milk in it. Children were asked how she would feel when given the can of Coke, and before she drinks it.
What is needed to understand surprise?
an understanding of false beliefs, that representation of world is going to be dis-confirmed and how to deceive (i.e. plant false belief in someone’s mind)
At what age do children learn how to deceive?
age 5
False belief tasks involve… x 2
1 first order belief
2 second order belief
First order belief
One that involves having a belief about someone having a belief (I think that she thinks that…)
Second order belief
Second order belief – One that involves understanding that someone can have beliefs about a third person (I think that she thinks, that he thinks that…).
When is a second order belief achieved and what does this show?
after age 8 therefore showing that it takes some years before they are fully aware that mind is always an interpreter of reality
Welman’s theory about development of understanding the mind
Develops in three phases:
- Age of 2: Children assume that people’s desires influence behavior.
- Age of 3: They consider a person’s desires and beliefs about world
- Age of 4: Children acknowledge that beliefs can also have inaccurate interpretations.
Perner’s theory about development of understanding the mind
Emphasizes change that happens at 4 years of age, time when children start understanding false belief.
- > Metarepresentation: Ability to represent a representation. Understanding of distinction between what is being referred to and what is being represented.
- Most important part of theory of mind occurs when child grasps this concept
Leslie’s theory about development of understanding the mind
Theorist used ‘metarepresentation’ in relation to young children’s pretend play.
- 18 months age: Children start to demonstrate pretend play ( must know how to categorize objects to play)
- Meta-representation: term for secondary representation (representation of primary representation (= thinking of object as it is)).
- Children’s ability to coordinate pretend play implies they understand what is in the mind of children they’re playing with.
Harris’ theory about development of understanding the mind
Children can understand others’ minds without necessarily understanding that others have mental representations.
- Simulation: process in which children can understand others’ minds.
- Children know about own emotions and have ability to pretend.
- Thus, they can project emotions onto others as well as explanations for those emotions onto other people.
Diagnosis of autism is based on __
-> name and explain the 3 impairments
diagnostic statistical manual of mental disorders
- Impairments in social interaction: failure to develop relations, lack of eye-to eye contact
- Impairments in communication: delay in development of language, lack of spontaneous make-believe play.
- Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities: adherence to routines that have no practical function.
Name and explain the 2 main features of autism
- Autistic aloneness: children’s inability to relate to others.
- Desire for sameness: children’s will to have a fixed routine.
Name and explain 2 secondary features of autism
- Language difficulty: children have good vocabulary but may use language without meaning or use correct language in inappropriate contexts and may show ‘echolalia’ (= repeating what another has just said).
- Islets of ability: children have poor performance in most areas but they may be as good if not better than others on specific tasks.
Why is it called the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
there are different degrees of autism, mild to severe
- one end of spectrum: severe learning difficulties
- other end: highly intelligent, independent
How did children with ASD perform on the Sally Anne Task?
had difficulty in tasks that require appreciation of another’s false belief.
Name a second task used to illustrate how children with ASD cannot understand other’s false beliefs
- > name the 3 types of stories
- > results
Showed sets of fours pictures, each of which makes a story. Children are given the pictures in mixed order and asked to put them in appropriate sequence as well as to explain what was happening
- > mechanical, behavioural, mentalistic
- > children with ASD were poor at understanding mentalistic stories
Mechanical story
action of story does not involve people
Behavioral story
people are included but it does not require understanding their thinking
Mentalistic story
requires understanding of beliefs about characters in pictures
What kind of tasks do children with ASD have difficulty with?
tasks that involve mental representations and understanding of others’ thoughts and beliefs
False photograph task
- a test of understanding non-mental representations
- task in which a picture is taken of bear sitting on a chair with a Polaroid camera. While the photo is waiting to be developed, the bear is moved to bed. The experimenter asks the child whether the photo will show the bear on a chair or the bear on the bed
What does the false photograph task show?
Children with ASD have an impaired understanding of mental representations but they are not impaired in understanding non-mental representations such as photographs and maps
How far can a deficit in understanding mental representations contribute to explanation of ASD?
People with ASD do not realize that speaker says statement based on speaker’s thoughts, which requires interpretation.
-> Inability to interpret makes it confusing and disturbing for people with ASD, which is why they insist on sameness and routine.
What did Piaget argue?
Piaget argued that mental phenomena are quite confusing for young children, because they are not obvious
What 2 separable aspects of understanding of mind did Piaget focus on?
- Understanding of nature of mental entities (= thoughts, dreams)
- Use of psychological reasoning to explain human actions (= how intentions explain human acts)
Mental entities
reflects the ability to make distinctions between mental and physical representations
Psychological reasoning
Processing of mental states that provide causes and explanations for person’s actions
Belief-desire psychology
System about reasoning of mind, world and behavior
-> explains and predicts action regarding what a person thinks, knows and expects, together with what he/she wants, intends and hopes for
When do children begin to engage in various pretense actions e.g. pretending to sleep?
by age 2
Name the 3 theories of autism
- theory of mind deficit
- executive dysfunction theory
- weak central coherence theory
Theory of mind deficit
- 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 theory of mind deficit
majority of ASD children fail false-belief tasks
Limitation of theory of mind deficit
does not explain symptoms of autism and 20% of children passed false- beliefs tasks therefore deficit is not universal
How was the theory of mind deficit modified?
the deficit was a delay as 73% of young adults with ASD passed second order belief tasks
What kind of language do adults with ASD have difficulty comprehending?
non-literal language
Executive dysfunction theory
- explain
- limitation
- 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.
- not universal
Executive dysfunction theory tasks assesments (name 3)
- inhibition tests
- intentionality tests
- executive memory tests
Inhibition tests
-> example
Those in which participant has to inhibit prepotent response. Individuals with autism have problems inhibiting prepotent responses.
-> stroop test
Stroop test
Naming the ink color of color words when word and ink are either in accordance (‘green’ printed in green) or not ( ‘green’ printed in red).
Intentionality tests
-> example
Involve ability to create and maintain goal-directed behaviors, which is relevant to making judgements of false belief.
-> unexpected transfer test
Unexpected transfer test
Participants have to suppress incorrect response and must retain action-relevant information in working memory.
Executive memory tests
Tasks in which participants have to shift attention between stimuli.
Weak central coherence theory
explains some of the non-social features of autism, such as attention to acute detail ranging from pedantry to obsession
Define “weak central coherence”
strong drive to process things in detail-focused way, rather than the global whole
Reduced generalization theory
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,
