Wk10 Pre-recorded

Question 1

What are concepts?

Answer 1

General ideas that can be used to group together aspects of the world on the basis of some similarity

Question 2

What can concepts help us do?

Answer 2

Make sense of the world

Generalise from past experiences

Prime our emotional reactions

Question 3

Why is it difficult to understand how the human mind develops in infancy?

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

What is theory of mind?

Answer 4

The ability to explain, predict, and interpret people’s behaviour by attributing mental states to ourselves and others

Question 5

What 2 experimental methods/tests are used to demonstrate a conceptual shift in understanding theory of mind?

Answer 5

False-belief tests

Appearance-reality tests

Question 6

What have tests of theory of mind concluded?

Answer 6

There is a conceptual shift in children’s theory of mind development at around about 4 years old

Question 7

Explain the Maxi test (Wimmer & Perner)

Answer 7

False-belief test

Children are asked where Max will look for his chocolate after his mother has moved it without him knowing.

Question 8

What are the findings of the Maxi test?

Answer 8

3 year olds fail

4-5 year olds pass

Question 9

What 2 things do children need to understand in order to pass the Maxi test?

Answer 9

Another person can have a false belief about the state of the world

Behaviour is explained by a person’s beliefs rather than reality

Question 10

What do findings from false belief tasks suggest about 3 year olds understanding?

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

What happens in an unexpected transfer false belief test?

Answer 11

An object is unexpectedly transferred from location to another without the knowledge of the main protagonist.

Question 12

What happens in an unexpected contents false belief test?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

What are findings of unexpected contents false belief test?

Answer 13

3 year olds struggled and said pencils

4 year olds say smarties

Question 14

Do 3 year olds pass false belief tests?

Answer 14

No. Even with modifications such as use of pictures etc. children still struggled.

Question 15

What do we know about false belief understanding across cultures?

Answer 15

Across cultures:

3 year olds can’t pass the test.

Some 4 year olds passed.

Most 5 year olds passed.

Question 16

What is the appearance-reality test? (Flavell et al., 1983)

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

What 2 things do children need to do to pass the appearance-reality test?

Answer 17

Hold two different mental representations of an object

Understand that they can have a belief that differs from the true state of the world.

Question 18

What are the results of appearance-reality tests?

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Is there individual difference in ToM performance?

Answer 19

Yes. Individual differences between the ages of 3.5-6 years.

Question 20

What is earlier ToM passing performance correlated with?

Answer 20

Secure attachments
More siblings/social experience
Executive functions
Language skills

Question 21

What 2 things do children need to be able to do to pass second-order false belief tasks?

Answer 21

Reason about the mental states of two other people

Understand that a second person can have false beliefs about a third person’s beliefs

Question 22

At what age do children pass second-order false belief tasks?

Answer 22

7/8 years old

Question 23

What do higher-order belief tasks consider?

Answer 23

Beliefs, desires, intentions, personality, attitudes etc. when interpreting actions

Question 24

What do children who can pass higher-order belief tasks learn to understand?

Answer 24

Understand that two people can interpret the same situation in different ways for valid reasons.

Question 25

Why might failure on theory of mind tests not necessarily mean there is an absence of theory of mind?

Answer 25

Knowledge of reality can result in adults failing the task.

Children can be manipulated to fail false belief tasks.

Question 26

In sum, what do theory of mind tasks tell us about understanding children’s minds?

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

How does theory of mind develop?

Answer 27

Continues to develop after 4 and shows gradual improvement which continues into adulthood.

Question 28

What factors can contribute towards individual differences in theory of mind abilities?

Answer 28

Social environment

Parenting

Other developmental changes in the child (language, executive functions)