theory of mind

Question 1

early understanding

Answer 1

infants can imitate; communicate/gesture; experience desires; engage in social referencing

Question 2

2yr olds

Answer 2

use mental vwerbs

predict action on basis of desires (wellman and wooley 1990 - most 2yr correct)

Question 3

3 yr olds

Answer 3

make ontological distinction between real and mental objects

predict action based on true/correct belief (wellman and bartsch 1988)

Question 4

false belief task

Answer 4

maxi story with choc in fridge/cupboard - 3yr wrong but 4yr right
also have probs with their own prev held false beliefs (smarties task)

Question 5

perner’s conceptual explanation

Answer 5

Analysis:
Beliefs are mental representations and represent the world, False beliefs misrepresent
Theory:
3 yr olds fail to conceive of beliefs as representations (they have a ‘copy’ view of beliefs)
4 yr olds have acquired this conception (they have a ‘representational’ view of beliefs)

Question 6

evaluation of perner

Answer 6

anecdotal evidence that young children confuse pics with referents. zaitchik 1990 false photo task. concludes 3yr have general problem with concept of representation

probs: stage like dev; no real evidence 3yr have probs understanding representations; FB and FP do not correlate in 3yr (representations)

Question 7

lesley’s processing account

Answer 7

beliefs are propositional attitudes. Pretence is a PA.

we have innate ToM that eveolvedto work out others’ beliefs, desires, intentions, pretences. kids have fully func. ToM if they pretend.

Why do 3yr fail? Selection Processor, responsible for reasoning, is yet to develop

Question 8

evaluation of lesley

Answer 8

lesley and thaiss 1992 CWA scored 33 on FB but 100 on FP and MK scored 60 on FB but 66 on FP - conclude fail FB for diff reasons - CWA have SP but damage ToM and struggle spec. w/ mental representations and MK 3yr have underdevelpoed SP
BUT
no evidence - he redescribes rather than explains data

false photo task and fals belief task results do not correlate in 3yr

Question 9

other accounts

Answer 9

counterfactual reasoning (riggs)

Question 10

why do 3 yr olds fail the false belief task

Answer 10

conceptual difficulty (Perner’s 1991 representational account) or processing difficulty (leslie’s 1992 innate ToM account)?

Question 11

pretend play

Answer 11

start to engage at 18-24mnth

pretending to be asleep (role pretense)
pretemdimg eat with empty spoon (property pretense)
pretending banana is phone (object substitution)

relates to ToM: role play and perspective taking; thinkimg about same thing in 2