theory of mind

Question 1

what is theory of mind

Answer 1

• the ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others

Question 2

what are examples of theory of mind

Answer 2

• track the beliefs of others based on their history
• we can make mental state inferences about observable actions
• we can take the perspective of someone else

Question 3

what did Dennet 1978 propose about beliefs

Answer 3

• people hold beliefs
• their beliefs predict their behaviour

Question 4

what is the unexpected transfer test by Wimmer and Perner 1983

Answer 4

• maxi puts chocolate in the cupboard
• mum moves it to the fridge
• where will he look for the chocolate
• 3 year olds fail the belief question
• some four year olds pass
• most 5-6 year olds give the correct answer

Question 5

what is the deceptive box test

Answer 5

• what is inside the box
• open and show what it is
• then will ask what their friend will say is in the box - perner et al 1987

Question 6

what are explicit tasks

Answer 6

• children are asked to explicitly report the contents of another mind

Question 7

what is an implicit task

Answer 7

children imply that they are aware of other minds through their behaviour

Question 8

what is the unexpected preference test

Answer 8

• repacholi and gopnik
• pp and researcher discuss favourite foods
• younger pps could understand the experimenter had a different preference, 14 months could not

Question 9

what did lewis et al 1989 find about perception

Answer 9

• 3 year old children told convincing lies doing something that was forbidden

Question 10

what did chandler et al 1989 find about deception

Answer 10

2-5 year old children destroyed tell-tale evidence to prevent a competitor finding hidden treasure

Question 11

what did sullivan and winner 1993 find about perception

Answer 11

3-4 year old children changed the content of a familiar container in order to trick the experimenter

Question 12

how did rubio-fernandez and geurts 2013 revisit the unexpected transfer test

Answer 12

• protagonist did not leave the room
• children asked to enact the search phase
• success increased from 22% to 80%

Question 13

how might culture influence theory of mind

Answer 13

• the rate of development is similar across cultures but the timing was different
• universal stage-like development but different onset times

Question 14

how might parenting influence theory of mind

Answer 14

• single parenting, parental distress, and poor economic situations associated with poorer theory of mind performance
• mothers who explained psychological causality to their children associated with better theory of mind performance

Question 15

how does family size influence theory of mind

Answer 15

• children with more siblings are developmentally advantaged in passing a test of false belief compared with singletons
• children living in extended family are developmentally advantaged