theory of mind

Question 1

what is theory of mind?

Answer 1

ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others

Question 2

why is theory of mind useful?

Answer 2

feature of social cognition
eg) to predict future behaviours, communicate with others, feel empathy etc

Question 3

do non human primates have theory of mind?

Answer 3

assess visual perspective of others
use this to base dominance decisions, and decide which food to compete for

Question 4

how do Western Scrub-Jays show theory of mind?

Answer 4

steal food
resteal based on whether they were observed

Question 5

is theory of mind uniquely human? (controvery)

Answer 5

controversial to consider theory of mind in animals

Question 6

what are beliefs?

Answer 6

understanding other people’s minds
beliefs predict behaviour

Question 7

what is true belief?

Answer 7

person’s mental state doesn’t differ from reality

Question 8

what is false belief?

Answer 8

a person’s mental state differs from reality

Question 9

who conducted the unexpected transfer test?

Answer 9

Wimmer and Perner

Question 10

what happens in the unexpected transfer test?

Answer 10

participants observe that an object moves from location A to location B without the protagonist’s knowledge

Question 11

what are the results of the unexpected transfer test?

Answer 11

3 year olds fail
some 4 year olds pass
most 5 year olds pass

Question 12

who conducted the deceptive box task?

Answer 12

Perner et al

Question 13

what happened in the deceptive box task?

Answer 13

child shown a box of smarties and asked what it contained
next, showed that it contained a pencil
put the pencil back inside the box
child was asked what another person would think is inside the box

Question 14

what were the results of the deceptive box task?

Answer 14

younger children stated the incorrect response of a pencil
older children understood the belief that another person would think smarties are in the box

Question 15

what are explicit tasks?

Answer 15

children are asked to explicitly report the contents of another mind

Question 16

what are implicit tasks?

Answer 16

children imply they are aware of other minds through their behaviour

Question 17

what were the results of the unexpected preference test?

Answer 17

14 month olds couldn’t understand the experimenter’s different food preference
18 month olds recognised that the experimenter had a different preference

Question 18

what are two components of deception?

Answer 18

understanding that another person’s mind holds a belief

stimulating a convincing sincere expression

Question 19

how have young children demonstrated deception?

Answer 19

told lies about doing something forbidden

destroyed evidence to prevent a competitor finding hidden treasure

changed the content of a familiar container to trick the experimenter

Question 20

when do psychologists propose children experience a rapid conceptual shift?

Answer 20

4 years old

Question 21

what would be the case if there is a rapid conceptual shift?

Answer 21

would predict:
-consistency across studies/measures
-perfect performance in older children and adults
-universal ‘flip’ in performance

Question 22

what changes helped children in the unexpected transfer test?

Answer 22

told the protagonist just turned around, instead of leaving the room
children asked to enact the search phase

Question 23

what changes helped children in the deceptive box test?

Answer 23

had to write down what they thought was in the box at the start of the study
mailed this through a postbox
asked what they thought was in the box when they mailed the paper

Question 24

what does a meta analysis show about about a rapid conceptual shift?

Answer 24

performance flips from below task to above chance aged 4

Question 25

how does culture impact theory of mind development?

Answer 25

rate of development similar across cultures, but different timing

Question 26

how does parenting impact theory of mind development?

Answer 26

single parenting, parental distress and poor economic situation associated with poor development

children performed better if their mothers explained using psychological causality

Question 27

how does family size impact theory of mind development?

Answer 27

children with more siblings (especially older) are advantaged in theory of mind tests
children living in extended families are developmentally advantaged