Theory of mind and autism

Question 1

Explain theory of mind

Answer 1

Ability to attribute beliefs etc to self and others in order to predict behaviour

Question 2

Describe early signs of theory of mind in infants

Answer 2

Newborns find faces (eyes) interesting

innate empathy: cries when others cry

Question 3

Describe early signs of theory of mind from 1 year

Answer 3

Social referencing: use feelings of others to guide actions (think visual clift) - NB unknown whether it’s mothers behaviour they respond to or feelings

Protoimperative: pointing to get mothers attention (I want)
Protodeclarative: Pointing with no apparent desire for object (that’s interesting)
–> realises that attention is can be different from themselves

Joint attention: Child starts to engage with attention of others

Question 4

Describe early signs of theory of mind from 2 years

Answer 4

Begin to understand desires: Desire-happiness link (want rabbit, gets rabbit, how feel?) Understands that people act according to desire

Question 5

Describe early signs of theory of mind from 4 years

Answer 5

Understands beliefs: People act on desires AND beliefs

acquire representational understanding of mind: mind represent the world and can be wrong –> shown by false belief task (Mum’s not home, child takes sweets - does mum know that child took sweets?) - when passes false belief task full theory of mind

Question 6

What is the triad of impairments in autism?

Answer 6

qualitative impairments in social interaction, communication & imagination

Question 7

What are the likely explanations of autism?

Answer 7

Biological - genes (sibs/twins more likely to be autistic)

Previously thought to be due to cold mother, but disproven

Cognitive: ToM deficit: lack insight of mental states / Central coherence deficit: lack ability to see higher-order relations (normally diverse information is drawn together construct higher meaning - autism lacks this) think the square made up of 4 triangles

Question 8

What are the problems with ToM deficit?

Answer 8

Problem 1: What about the 20% that pass false belief test? explanation: fails higher order ToM test so don’t have full understanding / passing might be due to mental arithmetic

Problem 2: What about restricted and repetitive behaviour?