Empathy + Theory of Mind

Cognitive empathy def 

Understand what someone is thinking/feeling: perspective-taking

Emotional empathy

Experience congruent emotion in response to others’ state, e.g. fear when they are fearful)

Development of empathy (3)

• 14-20 months: dev. in cognitive + affective empathy (greater dev. in affective, girls display more)

• 2-4 years: increase in frequency + appropriateness of empathic responses + desire to set aside own needs in favour of empathic responses

• 4-5 years: major gain in cognitive empathy (attributable to dev of ToM)

Theory of Mind (ToM) def (2)

• Understanding that the mind holds mental states (thoughts, beliefs + desires) that influence behaviour

• Mental states differ across people + time

When ToM usually emerges 

Around age 4

How Theory of Mind is assessed (1→2)

• False beliefs task

  • If can comprehend that others have a false belief whilst self has true belief → pass (acquired ToM)

  • If think that others will have same (true) belief as self → fail (not yet acquired ToM)

Factors influencing ToM emergence (3)

• Language 

• WM capacity

• Social interaction

Factors influencing ToM emergence: language (2, TLDR)

• Girls develop lang. earlier + are better at false belief tasks

• Lang. deprivation + lang. difficulties associated with delayed emergence

TLDR: lang. dev. may aid ToM emergence

Factors influencing ToM emergence: WM (3 + TLDR)

• False belief tasks require holding 2 opposing rules in mind simultaneously → considerable WM load

• 4 year olds can usually hold 2 opposing rules in mind simultaneously + this is usually when ToM emerges

• ToM improvement moderated by WM capacity (Leece & Bianco, 2018)

TLDR: increased WM capacity associated w/ ToM emergence

Factors influencing ToM emergence: social interaction

• Preschoolers w/ more siblings → better at false belief tasks

• Seeing other people acting on false beliefs → improved false belief task performance in 3 year olds 

TLDR: social interaction → may contribute to ToM emergence