Theory of Mind Flashcards
What two things does figuring out other’s mental states require?
- That we view others as intentional agents
2. An ability to take another person’s perspective
What is ToM?
Attributing mental states to others.
A big part of this is the understanding that other people’s desires, beliefs and thoughts about the world can be:
1. Different to our own
2. Wrong (a false belief)
What is a crucial test of ToM?
The ability to attribute false beliefs to others
A standard false belief task e.g. Sally-Anne task
Which children pass the Sally-Anne task?
4 year olds pass and say that Sally will look in the basket
3 year olds fail and say she will look in the box
This pattern of performance has been reported across the globe
Outline the findings of the smarties test when they were asked what they would have thought was inside the tube if they hadn’t already seen inside
3 year olds fail so have a poor understanding of even their own beliefs
4 year olds pass
Seems that ToM rapidly develops between ages 3 and 4
What doesn’t happen until age 5?
The ability to use the idea of false beliefs to predict when a person will be surprised
The use of deception, young children do not think they can deprive someone of knowledge and deceive them.
When does ToM first develop?
Based on many studies, the consensus is that ToM develops on false belief tasks around age 4
This doesn’t mean ToM is completely absent younger than 4
Can ToM be seen in infancy?
6 month olds understand people act on their intentions which is a basic building block of ToM
6 month olds look longer at novel scenes, 3 month olds do not
Do toddlers understand other people have desires?
Yes 18 month old infants understand people may have desires different to their own
Experimenter pulls faces at different foods and asks for more food
Infant gives the experimenter their preferred food even if its not their own preferred food
What do toddlers also understand as well as desires motivating behaviour?
At age 3, children understand that behaviour might be motivated by incomplete beliefs
It seems that understanding incomplete beliefs is easier than understanding false beliefs
BUT it has been demonstrated that infants understand both that people act on the basis of their beliefs and these beliefs can be false
Why do children perform badly and infants do well?
There may be two systems for ToM:
- Implicit ToM - innate or very early learned, is there without awareness and can’t be expressed verbally
- Explicit ToM - learned more slowly and with awareness
Outline the Theory-Theory of ToM Development
2 y/o = desire psychology
3 y/o = belief-desire psychology (but not false beliefs)
4 y/o = beliefs are interpretations and may not be accurate
Children’s ToM and the theories they use are much like a scientist’s in that they are modified and become more specific
Outline the Meta-representations theory of ToM development
Preschoolers struggle on false belief tasks bc they cannot hold two representations of an object simultaneously unlike 4 year olds
However, children engage in pretend play from about 2 years which involves meta-representations
Outline the executive function theory of ToM development
Their failure may stem from a cognitive deficit, they have poor executive function skills (WM and inhibitory control)
Executive function skills come before ToM skills suggesting that EF supports ToM
What are some individual differences in ToM?
Better language skills are associated with better ToM skills, delayed language development is associated with delayed ToM development
Interactions with others are correlated with greater ToM
