Psych Week 6 theory of mind

What is Theory of Mind?

The ability to interpret, predict, and explain other people's actions based on their internal mental states (beliefs, desires, knowledge, and pretense).

What mental state is especially difficult for children to understand?

False beliefs.

What is the difference between an agent and an object?

Objects follow physical laws, while agents are self-propelled and act according to goals and mental states.

Why is distinguishing agents from objects important?

Theory of mind requires understanding that agents act based on goals and beliefs.

What was woodwards cloth/toy experiment

Woodward grabbed the frog on the orange cloth repeatedly until the baby got bored. Then switched the frog onto the grey cloth. Then she grabbed the new toy and the baby was intrigued

What did Woodward (1998) find about 6-month-olds?

Infants think agents have goals.

They track what the hand wants, not where it moved.

How do infants interpret a grasping hand?

They expect it to continue reaching for the same object (goal tracking).

How do infants interpret a grasping claw?

They expect it to continue reaching to the same location, not necessarily the same object.

In Woodward's study, what does longer looking indicate?

Surprise or violation of the infant's expectation.

What did Meltzoff (1995) find about 18-month-olds?

They imitate intended goals, not just observed actions.

What happens when infants watch someone fail to complete an action? ( Meltzoff)

They imitate the intended successful action.

Do 18-month-olds imitate a machine's goals? (Meltzoff)

no

What is rational imitation?

Infants consider why someone performed an action and imitate accordingly.

In Gergely et al. (2002), what did infants do when the adult's hands were free?

They copied the unusual head-touch action.

What did infants do when the adult's hands were occupied?

They used their hands instead of copying the head-touch.

What does this suggest about infants? ( gergely)

They evaluate whether actions are rational before imitating them.

What is overimitation?

Copying both necessary and unnecessary actions.

What did Lyons et al. (2007) find?

Children copy unnecessary actions even when they know those actions are not needed. ( child copied the unnecessary motions to retrieve item from box)

Do children still overimitate under time pressure?

yes

Do chimps overimitate?

no or at least much less than humans

What was the Broccoli/Goldfish study testing?

Whether children understand that other people can have different desires than their own.

What is the key finding of the Broccoli/Goldfish study?

Young children(18 months old) begin understanding that another person's preferences can differ from their own.

What is a false belief?

A belief that does not match reality.

To understand false belief, what must a child realize?

Another person's belief can differ from reality and from the child's own belief.

What are the two classic false-belief tasks?

Sally-Anne task and False Contents (Smarties) task.

What happens in the Sally-Anne task?

Sally leaves her ball in a basket. Anne moves it to a box while Sally is away.

How do 4- and 5-year-olds answer?

Correctly—they say Sally will look in the basket as that’s where she left the ball.

How do 3-year-olds answer?

Incorrectly—they say Sally will look where the ball actually is. ( box)

What is the False Contents (Smarties) task?

A Smarties box contains a pencil instead of candy. Children are asked what they originally thought was inside and what another person would think is inside.

What does success on the Smarties task show?

Understanding of false beliefs.

What did Onishi & Baillargeon (2005) test?

False-belief understanding in 15-month-old infants using looking time.

What happens in the true-belief condition?

The actor sees the object move and knows its new location.

What happens in the false-belief condition?

he actor misses the object's movement and holds a false belief about its location.

What did infants do in the test trial?

They looked longer when the actor searched in an unexpected place.

What is surprising about these findings?

Infants appear to understand false beliefs before 3-year-olds can verbally demonstrate it.

What is the competence vs. performance explanation?

Children may possess the understanding (competence) but struggle to demonstrate it because tasks are demanding (performance).

Why might infants pass while 3-year-olds fail?

Infant looking-time tasks require less verbal ability and inhibitory control.

What is executive functioning (EF)?

Cognitive skills including inhibitory control and task/rule switching.

How is EF related to false-belief performance?

Better EF is associated with better performance on false-belief tasks.

Why are infant false-belief tasks easier?

Infants only watch events and do not need to verbally inhibit the correct answer.

What did Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) study?

Theory of mind in children with autism using the Sally-Anne task.

How did children with autism perform on the Sally-Anne task?

Worse than typically developing children and children with Down syndrome.

What is the False Photo task?

A photograph is taken, then reality changes. Children are asked what the photo shows.

How do children with autism perform on the False Photo task?

usually pass it

What does passing the False Photo task but failing Sally-Anne suggest?

A domain-specific difficulty with reasoning about mental states rather than a general reasoning deficit.