The development of theory of mind Flashcards
Theory of mind def
attributing (unobservable) mental states (thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions) to others -Premack and Woodruff 1978
A bit part of this is understanding that other peoples desires, beliefs and thoughts about the world can be:
1) different to our own
2) wrong (a false belief)
ToM is vital for... Also for (Baron-Cohen)
helping us to understand, explain and predict (even manipulate) others behaviour because people tend to act on their beliefs and intentions B-C: -understanding art and literature -communication -teaching -persuading/ deceiving/ pretending
Measure ToM by?
crucial test of ToM is the ability to attribute false beliefs to others
False belief task - sally-anne
Development of ToM
-preschoolers
sally-anne task
smarties task
sally-anne task - child must separate own belief from other peoples (+also attribute false belief to sally)
- 4 yr olds pass (say basket)
-3 yr olds fail (say box)
this pattern has been found globally
– smarties test part A -
shown smarties tube and asked what’s inside, they say smarties
then shown pencils inside, then asked what a friend will think is inside
3 yr olds=fail, 4 yr olds = pass
–smarties test part B -
childen asked what they would have thought was inside if they hasn’t seen the pencils
3yr olds= fail still! (shows poor understanding of own beliefs)
(ToM rapidly develops between 3 and 4)
Development of ToM (preschoolers continued)
-after 4 yrs old:
surprise
deception
Surprise: at age 5 - children can use idea of false beliefs to predict when a person will be surprised
-children told tommy loves chocolate. His mum bought him smarties, the experimenters replaces smarties in tube with jelly babies
only 5yrs+ said tommy would be surprised
Deception: around age 5 too
child picks sticker they like and 1 they don’t like, then ‘nasty puppet’ introduced to them. They were told he likes to take away stickers that children liked.
puppet asked: ‘which sticker do you like?’
-3yr olds answered honestly
-4 yr olds didn’t spontaneously deceive but after a few gos they learnt to deceive
-5yr olds did deceive
ToM seems to be causally linked to ability to lie -> Ding et al - 3 yr olds either trained in ToM skills or physical skill. Those in ToM skill group = more likely to lie
Development of ToM
Infancy
-understanding others as intentional agents
-understanding mental states
1) 6 month olds understand people act on their intentions (basic building block of ToM)
-test: shown scene reaching for toy, then either same scene or different (reaching for ball)
- 6 month olds looks longer at different scene (may be due to to infants own goal-directed actions)
-3 month olds given sticky mitten looked longer when action viewed changed
2) 2yr olds understand their thoughts can be different from the state of reality (shown through pretend play)
-3 yr olds show awareness that thoughts exist (understand mental entities have different properties to physical ones)
-at 2 use words like: ‘want’, ‘see’, ‘taste’
-at 3 use words like: ‘know’ and ‘think’ = cog. states
=shows understanding of contrasting mental states
Development of ToM
Infancy
-understanding others have desires
-incomplete beliefs
1) 18 month olds understand people have desires different to their own
-child tries 2 bowls of food and gives preference, then exprimenter tries each and gives preference, then exerimenter holds out hand to ask for more - 18month old gives them preferred food (14months gives their favourite food)
2) by age 3 - understand both desires and beliefs can motivate behaviours
child learns character thinks books are only on shelf, not in the box, child will guess the character will only look on shelf
=understanding incomplete beliefs is easier than understanding inaccurate (false) beliefs
Early development of ToM includes understanding that:
others are intentional agents mental states exist other people have beliefs other people have desires that may be diff to ours people may act on incomplete beliefs
False belief in infants?
-green and yellow box study
infants see actor reach in green box for object repeatedly, location of boxes switched
2 conditions: 1)actor eyes covered (false belief)
2) actors eyes not covered (true belief)
-actor then reaches for object in same green box or yellow box (diff box, same location)
infants look longer when actor makes a surprising reach (yellow box) as the actor should know its moved and change their reaching location (true belief)
infants also look longer in false belief condition when actor reaches to right box, because actor didn’t see switch so should still reach in same direction
conclusion:
15 month olds have false-belief understanding as they look longer (show surprise) when an actor reaches towards a location that is not where the actor will have thought the object was.
so, why do they still fail the false-belief task at age 3?!
Why do 3 yr olds fail false belief tasks at age 3, but also are able to pass others at a much younger age??
2 systems for ToM!!
1) implicit ToM - innate or learned v early. There without awareness and children will maintain this skill but can’t express it verbally
2) explicit ToM - learned more slowly with more awareness
Theories of ToM development (3)
1 = theory-theory (Wellman, 1990)
2yr olds - have theory based on desire psychology - they assume people’s desires influence their behaviours
3yr olds - have a theory based on belief-desire psychology - they take into account others desires and beliefs (only do so about true ones)
4yr olds - make crucial realisation that beliefs are interpretations and that they may be inaccurate (eg. may be a false-belief)
(theories are modified and become more specific)
(struggles to explain early competencies in some aspects of ToM)
Theories of ToM development (3)
2 = meta-representations
theory states: preschoolers struggle on false belief tasks because they can’t hold 2 representations of an object simultaneously(meta-representation)
-argued 4 yr olds pass false-belief tasks when they can have meta-representations so be able to understand the object being hidden is truly in location B but assumed to be in location A
however, from 2 yrs children engage in pretend play which involves meta-representations
(struggles to explain early competencies in some aspects of ToM)
Theories of ToM development(3)
-executive function accounts (Carlson and Moses, 2011)
failure may stem from cognitive deficit (instead of representational deficit)
preschoolers have poor executive function skills (working memory and inhibitory control - ability to suppress automatic, but incorrect behaviours)
need these for ToM tasks
-exec function skills learned before ToM suggesting that exec function supports ToM
Individual differences in ToM
- language
- interactions with others
- autism spectrum disorders
-better language skills associated with better ToM skills (miligan, 2007) while delayed language = delayed ToM
-interactions - esp those involving mental state language and with older people = correlated with greater ToM(Meins 2002)
-ASD = developmental disorder characterised by responsive behaviours and interests, sensory differences and impairments in social interaction
–> involves ToM impairment (Baron-Cohen 85)
-only 20%ASD kids passed
-80% down syndrome passed
- 80% typically developing passed 4 yrs old
kids with ASD can: sort pics to make mechanical story(no humans), sort pics to make a behavioural story (no inferences needed)
can’t: sort pics of a mentalistic story (infer a persons thoughts), find it difficult to deceive, can perform action to prevent person stealing sweet but can’t lie
However, ToM deficits can’t explain all symptoms of ASD (eg. sensory symptoms and repetitive behaviour)
Also, some ASD kids pass on false belief tasks = not universal deficit (however, usually all fail 2nd order F-B task that involves 2 lots of thought)
