Theory of Mind Flashcards
Describe what theory of mind refers to
-Ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others
-See things from another perspective
-Including thoughts, beliefs, intentions, desires and knowledge
-Different strategies can be used to observe them; tracking beliefs of others, making mental state inferences and taking perspective of another
-Based on how long you’ve known someone and how much you know them, you can infer and predict what they may be thinking
What did Dally et al., (2006) find out about birds having theory of mind?
-Western Scrub-Jays with cache food, and recache based on whether they were observed
-Pretend to hide food in location and then they take the food when unseen and stash it somewhere else to prevent it being taken from them
What did Hare et al., (2000) find out about apes having theory of mind?
-Assess the visual perspective of others and then use this knowledge to decide what food to compete for
-Basing decisions on who is dominant within the group
-Less dominant ape could see two sources of food, dominant ape could only see one source of food
-The less dominant ape went for the food that was unseen by the other ape as it was easier due to less competition
What did a review by Krupenye and Call (2019) find out about dogs having theory of mind?
-Theory of mind in animals is quite controversial
-Perspective taking abilities is heavily studied
-Can’t ask animals what are going on, just have to trust their behaviour
Describe the idea of beliefs created by Dennet (1978) ?
-Looking into understanding others’ minds and said that people hold beliefs
-Beliefs can determine and predict their behaviour
-Based on people’s behaviours we can predict beliefs, and based on beliefs we can predict behaviour
-Young children can make inferences but we can’t be sure that this isn’t due to prior knowledge that they have
-Separating two different beliefs, can create false beliefs
Describe the Unexpected Transfer Test
-Wimmer and Perner (1983)
-Shown a scene of a son put his chocolate in the cupboard and then later the mom moves it to the fridge
-Asked 3 questions: “Where will Maxi look for his chocolate?” as well as “Where did Maxi put his chocolate?” and “Where did Mum put his chocolate ?”
-Findings found that 3 year olds failed the belief question, some 4 years olds passed and nearly all of 5-6 year olds pass
-3 year olds would say that Maxi would look in the fridge as they know that the chocolate is in there, and so it would make sense for Maxi to look there
Describe the Deceptive Box Test
-Perner et al. (1987)
-Box of smarties and asked what is inside the tube
-Experimenter takes out a pencil and shows that there is a pencil there
-A friend walks in, and the ppt is asked what they think Johnny would say is inside?
-3 and young 4 year olds fail as they say that Johnny will think that there is a pencil in the box, as they know that that is what is in there
Describe the Appearance Reality Test
-Gopnik and Astington (1988)
-Children shown an object that looked like a rock and without surprise, when asked what they thought it was they responded with ‘It’s a rock’
-Experimenter then threw the object towards the wall, to show the children that the object was actually extremely light
-It was a sponge disguised as a rock
-Children were asked what the real identity of the object was and they realised that it was actually a sponge
Describe the State Change Test
-Wimmer and Hartl (1991)
-Children presented with a smarties box and shown that the content inside the box was actually smarties
-These were removed from the box and changed with pencils
-”When you first saw the tube, before we opened it, what did you think was inside?”
-80% of children aged 3-4 years responded ‘smarties’
-Children who were in the same sample as the deceptive box test showed that 40% responded that they thought there was smarties
What is the difference between an implicit task and implicit task?
-Explicit tasks are where children are asked to explicitly report the contents of another individuals mind
-Implicit tasks are where children imply that they are aware of another individuals mind through their behaviour
Describe the Unexpected Preference Test
-Have a conversation about favourite foods, one said broccoli and another said cheese biscuits
-Findings found that 18 month olds could understand the experimenter had a different preference to them, but 14 month olds couldn’t and so the younger children would give the experimenter their own favourite food instead
What did Lewis et al. (1989) find out about deception?
-3 year old children were told convincing lies around doing something that was forbidden
-Experimenter set up a zoo situation and put a sheet over it
-Told the child to not look under the sheet, but instead they do look there and most of them lied about what they had done
-Their behaviours were then shown to adults, and the adults couldn’t tell which children were lying and which children were telling the truth
What did Chandler et al. (1989) find out about deception?
-2-5 year old children destroyed tell-tale evidence that could prevent a competitor from finding the hidden treasure
What did Sullivan and Winner (1993) find out about deception?
-3-4 year old children changed the content of a familiar container in order to trick the experimenter
According to research, when does theory of mind develop?
-Early studies have given strong evidence that children rapidly develop the concept of ‘belief’ around their 4th birthday
-Early theorists argued for radical conceptual change in Theory of Mind development at approx age 4 years based on false belief tasks
-Does it happen as a gradual change or is it a rapid conceptual shift?
