ToM

Question 1

What is theory of mind ?

Answer 1

Attributing desires to others, figuring out what others are intending to do.
Requires
1. viewing others as intentional agents
2. ability to take another persons perspective.

A big part of understanding theory of mind is understanding that people have thoughts which are different to our own , and wrong

Question 2

Why is theory of mind important?

Answer 2

Baron - Cohen (1999) Theory of mind is useful in everything: Art, literature, teaching, pretending.

Question 3

What is a crucial test of theory of mind?

Answer 3

The ability to attribute false beliefs.

Question 4

What is a standard false belief task?

Answer 4

A Standard False Belief Task:

Character A places an item in box A
Then, without Character A knowing, the item is moved to box B by Character B.
Child is asked “where will Character A look for the item?”

The crucial test is whether children are able to attribute a false belief to the character and say box A (where they originally put the item).

Question 5

What did Friths sally- ann task show?

Answer 5

4-year-olds pass. They say the basket.
3-year-olds fail. They say the box (where it currently is).

The same pattern of performance has been reported across the globe

Question 6

What did Perner, Leekam & Wimmer (1987) find in the smarties test?

Answer 6

The Smarties Test Part A:

3-year-olds fail (say pencils: their current understanding)
4-year-olds pass (say the smarties).

Smarties Test Part B:

In the second part, children are asked what they would have thought was inside the smarties tube if they hadn’t seen inside.

3-year-olds still fail! — have a poor understanding of even their own beliefs.
4-year-olds pass.

Question 7

AT what age does research suggest ToM develops

Answer 7

Rapidly between the ages of 3 and 4

BuT not until age 5 children can predict when someone will be surprised.

Question 8

AT what age can children predict when someone will be surprised?
Hadwin & Perner, (1991).

Answer 8

age 5
- children can use the idea of false beliefs to predict when a person will be surprised
Both 4- and 5-year-olds knew that Tommy would look at the box and think there were smarties in it (they attribute a false belief to Tommy).
But only 5-year-olds said Tommy would be surprised when he opened the box.

Question 9

What age does deception develop?

Answer 9

Age 5.

Question 10

What did Peskin (1992) find? Naughty puppet

Answer 10

Children were introduced to a naughty puppet who liked to steal fave stickers.
Children were asked which sticker they liked…
3 year olds fail.
4 year olds learn.
5 year olds pass.

Question 11

What did Ding et al (2015 ) find? deception

Answer 11

Trained 3 year olds in theory of mind and found that they were more likely to lie after.

Question 12

SO when does theory of mind really develop?

Answer 12

The consensus is that theory of mind develops around age 4.

BUT this doesnt mean theory of mind isnt present in younger infants.

Question 13

What did Woodward (1998 ) find? SM

Answer 13

The sticky Mitten intervention.
6 month old habituated to scene a, then changed to scene b. Act suprised - shows that they understand other people are intentional agents and have goals.

Even 3 month old with an intervention looked longer- suggests ToM could have to do with a childs physical understanding.

Question 14

When does pretend play develop and how does it link to ToM?

How are dreams related?

Answer 14

Pretend play around 2. SHows that infants understand that their thoughts can be different from the state of reality.
3 year olds understand dreams.

Question 15

How does using words like want and see affect

Answer 15

When 3-year-olds use these two words together (which at age 3 they start to do), this shows an understanding of contrasting mental states (reality vs belief) (Shatz et al., 1983)

Question 16

what did Repacholi & Gopnik, (1997) find (Fave food)

Answer 16

18 month old can understand people have different desires to their own.
Give the experimenter their fave food.
14 month old give the experimenter their own fave.

Question 17

At what age do incomplete beliefs develop?

Answer 17

Age 3,
Incomplete beliefs are beliefs that are not false but incomplete, so a person only has part of the information. The example in the lecture about where the books are might help with this. In this study, children are told about a character who thinks that books are only on the shelf. The child knows there are also books in the toy box (as well as the shelf). This means the character has an incomplete belief. In this study (Wellman, 1990), 3-year-olds were able to predict that the character will search for the books on the shelf. This suggests that 3-year-olds can predict a person’s actions based on that person’s incomplete beliefs, but it is not until 4 they can predict a person’s actions based on a person’s false belief.

Question 18

Is it possible for infants to understand false beliefs- the building blocks of ToM
(Onishi & Baillargeon, 2005)

Answer 18

Infants see an actor reach in a green box for an object repeatedly.
The location of the boxes is then switched and the actors eyes during this switch are either:
Not covered (true belief condition)
Fully covered (false belief condition)
The actor then reaches again for the object in the same green box or a yellow box (different box, same location).

Infants look longer in the true belief condition - when the actor has seen the switch but doesnt reach for the correct box.
Infants also look longer in the false belief condition, when the actor hasnt seen the switch but they reach for the correct box.

• 15 month olds have some kind of false belief understanding.

Question 19

Why do infants perform well but children fail>

Answer 19

There may be two systems for theory of mind.
> Implicit ToM: This is innate or very early learned. It is there without awareness, and children will maintain this skill but can’t express it verbally.
>Explicit ToM: Learned more slowly and with awareness.

Question 20

(Clements & Perner, 1994). ?

Answer 20

3-year-olds who fail false beliefs tasks usually look at the box where the character should look, which indicates that they might actually know the correct answer although they do not express it

Question 21

what are the theories of the development of theory of mind?

Answer 21

1. theory - theory Wellman
2. Meta- representations Perner
3. Executive function accounts

Question 22

What is theory theory ( Wellman)

Answer 22

Children become more specific.
2 year olds = desire
3 year olds = belief/ desire
4 year olds= beliefs are interpretation

Question 23

What is meta- representation thoery (perner)

Answer 23

3 year olds cant hold more than 2 representations in their mind at once.
BUT
children engage in pretend play around 2 which involves meta - representations.

Question 24

WHat is executive function theory (Carlson & Moses, 2001)

Answer 24

Rather than preschoolers failing because of a representational deficit their failure may stem from a cognitive deficit.

Preschoolers have poor executive function skills (working memory and inhibitory control – the ability to suppress automatic, but incorrect behaviours).
In order to succeed on ToM tasks they need these basic information processing skills.
In fact, executive function skills come before ToM skills suggesting that executive function skills support ToM (Hughes & Ensor, 2007).

Question 25

individual differences in ToM?

Answer 25

• Language skills
• Communication skills
• ASD

Question 26

How is ASD implicated with theory of mind?

Answer 26

One influential explanation of ASD is that it involves a theory of mind impairment (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985). Using the Sally-Anne task the researchers found:

80% of typically developing 4-year-olds passed.
80% of children with down syndrome passed (mental age of 4).
Only 20% of children with ASD passed (mental age of 4).

Question 27

What did Baron - Cohen (1986) find? - In regards with ASD

Answer 27

CHildren with ASD can sort mechanical and behavioural but not mentalistic pictures.

Question 28

Sodian and Frith (1992)

Answer 28

Children with ASD can perform actions (lock a box) to prevent a puppet from stealing a sweet, but they are unable to deceive a puppet by claiming the box is locked (Sodian & Frith, 1992).