Wk10 Pre-recorded Flashcards
What are concepts?
General ideas that can be used to group together aspects of the world on the basis of some similarity
What can concepts help us do?
Make sense of the world
Generalise from past experiences
Prime our emotional reactions
Why is it difficult to understand how the human mind develops in infancy?
It is hard to determine if infants use invisible mental states to make judgements about how someone will act, or if they are basing their judgements on other visible information in the world.
What is theory of mind?
The ability to explain, predict, and interpret people’s behaviour by attributing mental states to ourselves and others
What 2 experimental methods/tests are used to demonstrate a conceptual shift in understanding theory of mind?
False-belief tests
Appearance-reality tests
What have tests of theory of mind concluded?
There is a conceptual shift in children’s theory of mind development at around about 4 years old
Explain the Maxi test (Wimmer & Perner)
False-belief test
Children are asked where Max will look for his chocolate after his mother has moved it without him knowing.
What are the findings of the Maxi test?
3 year olds fail
4-5 year olds pass
What 2 things do children need to understand in order to pass the Maxi test?
Another person can have a false belief about the state of the world
Behaviour is explained by a person’s beliefs rather than reality
What do findings from false belief tasks suggest about 3 year olds understanding?
3 year olds understanding of mental states if fundamentally different/inferior.
They struggle to grasp that a person’s beliefs are not a direct reflection of reality.
What happens in an unexpected transfer false belief test?
An object is unexpectedly transferred from location to another without the knowledge of the main protagonist.
What happens in an unexpected contents false belief test?
Child is asked what is in a smarties tube. They are then showed that it actually contains pencils and are surprised. They are asked what someone else will think is in the tube.
What are findings of unexpected contents false belief test?
3 year olds struggled and said pencils
4 year olds say smarties
Do 3 year olds pass false belief tests?
No. Even with modifications such as use of pictures etc. children still struggled.
What do we know about false belief understanding across cultures?
Across cultures:
3 year olds can’t pass the test.
Some 4 year olds passed.
Most 5 year olds passed.
What is the appearance-reality test? (Flavell et al., 1983)
Children are shown objects which are deceptive. They look like one thing but they are actually something else. Children are asked what they think the object looks like. Children are then asked to touch the object and asked what they think the deceptive object really is.
What 2 things do children need to do to pass the appearance-reality test?
Hold two different mental representations of an object
Understand that they can have a belief that differs from the true state of the world.
What are the results of appearance-reality tests?
Most 3-year olds fail
Most 4/5 year olds pass
There is a shift in understanding that it is possible to have multiple representations of the same thing.
Is there individual difference in ToM performance?
Yes. Individual differences between the ages of 3.5-6 years.
What is earlier ToM passing performance correlated with?
Secure attachments
More siblings/social experience
Executive functions
Language skills
What 2 things do children need to be able to do to pass second-order false belief tasks?
Reason about the mental states of two other people
Understand that a second person can have false beliefs about a third person’s beliefs
At what age do children pass second-order false belief tasks?
7/8 years old
What do higher-order belief tasks consider?
Beliefs, desires, intentions, personality, attitudes etc. when interpreting actions
What do children who can pass higher-order belief tasks learn to understand?
Understand that two people can interpret the same situation in different ways for valid reasons.
Why might failure on theory of mind tests not necessarily mean there is an absence of theory of mind?
Knowledge of reality can result in adults failing the task.
Children can be manipulated to fail false belief tasks.
In sum, what do theory of mind tasks tell us about understanding children’s minds?
Children’s understanding of other’s minds goes through a conceptual shift at 4 years old. They are able to understand that beliefs don’t necessarily correspond with reality but can still explain people’s behaviour.
How does theory of mind develop?
Continues to develop after 4 and shows gradual improvement which continues into adulthood.
What factors can contribute towards individual differences in theory of mind abilities?
Social environment
Parenting
Other developmental changes in the child (language, executive functions)
