9. Theory of Mind

How do we think of people?

in terms of their goals, beliefs, desires, hopes & feelings

What is coherence?

people act in accordance with their goals & beliefs

What is theory of mind?

proposed to explain the process about how children learn about other's mental states & development, perspective taking & mind reading

What is the link between mental states & goals/intentions?

people act in accordance with their goals, people with different goals would act differently

What is visual perspective taking?

can others see what I see? seeing isn't the same thing as knowing

What are the different types of belief?

true belief, ignorance: unaware of reality, false-belief, second order beliefs: beliefs about beliefs

Describe the study investigating goals and intentions?

6, 9, 12 and 18 month olds: adults fails to hand toy to infant either because they are unwilling or because they try but drop it. found that 9, 12 and 18 months were more impatient or frustrated in the unwilling condition than unable condition. infants adapted their responses to different intentional acts.

Describe the study that investigates desires?

children often assume everyone likes what they do (crackers) and dislike what they dislike (broccoli). adult says they like broccoli and hate crackers and then 'can you give me some?' - children younger than 2 handed crackers as could not perceive how someone could like broccoli, but above age 2 handed broccoli

Describe evidence of perception & knowledge access in 12 month olds?

when an experimenter looks behind a barrier and shows excitement, 12 month olds walk around to look what is behind the barrier

Describe evidence of perception & knowledge access in 24 month olds?

an adult entered the room searching for an object, object 1 was out in the open and object 2 visible to child but not adult. when asked to help the adult find object, 24 month old children handed object 2

What do false belief tasks assess?

whether children can recognise that people would have multiple representations of one situation

What are the two main false belief tasks?

unexpected location task & unexpected contents task

Describe the study on the unexpected location task?

maxi puts chocolate in kitchen cupboard and mother moves chocolate to drawer? where will maxi look for chocolate? 3 year olds answered the drawer and acted how the world is as opposed to understanding that we act on knowledge, 4-5 year olds answered cupboard

Describe the study on the unexpected contents task?

experimenters ask children what they believe is in a box that looks like smarties, when children guess smarties they open box to show pencil. then child asked what another person would think is inside - 3 year old said pencils, 4 year old said smarties

At what age do children not understand that another person may have a false belief about the world?

3 years old

What is explicit theory of mind?

more conscious tracking of other's mental states

How is explicit theory of mind measured?

by standard false beliefs tasks, interviews with 3-5 year olds

What is implicit theory of mind?

being able to track other's mental states unconsciously

How is implicit theory of mind measured?

similar stories in false belief tasks are used. instead of interviews, infants looking times are measured

What are the three different models explaining theory of mind?

conceptual change model, competence model (a critique of conceptual change model) and maturation model (nativist)

What is desire psychology?

a theory of persons based on an initial, simplified understanding of the following internal states: goals & intentions, perception & knowledge access

What does the conceptual change model explain?

how children go from believing that belief equates to reality, to believing that belief equates to an internal reality or representation of reality

What are criticisms of traditional false belief tasks?

they underestimate young children's abilities due to task demands: task complexity - requires verbal ability, memory attention etc, reason for displacement: deception, executive function: inability to inhibit the knowledge of reality

How does wording of the question have an effect?

people may have thought experimenter meant where should maxi look for his chocolate, causing them to answer how they did

At what age do children use deceptive strategies?

under age 5

Describe hide and seek game experiment?

child hides toy in one of four boxes, child wins if experimenter can't find toy. adult will falsely believe that toy is in right box but actually its in another

What is inhibitory control?

ability to supress actions or thoughts that are relevant to the task at hand

What do false belief tasks require children to inhibit?

their knowledge about reality (this ability develops in preschool years)

Describe the study on active behavioural helping paradigm?

the task was for infants to help adult achieve his goal - but to determine that goal child had to work out adult's belief. by 18 months, infant successfully took into account adult's belief in process of attempting to determine goal

What is the nonverbal 'violation of expectation' paradigm?

looking longer at the surprising scene

How are false belief tasks different in natural environments?

in naturalistic interactions they perform better - we see evidence for this in their spontaneous language (e.g "I thought i saw a cat but it was a dog")

What are some individual differences in false belief tasks?

correlated with executive function, linguistic skills, early family conversations about peoples desires predict success, pretend play and theory of mind, effect of siblings

What is different about theory of mind cross-culturally?

in some cultures it is against norms to talk about mental states and its considered a witchcraft, some languages make more fine tuned distinctions in mental state verbs than others

What is universal about theory of mind?

all seem to go through the same development trajectory in acquiring the ability to master mental states reasoning

Describe the study of theory of mind in chimps?

When experimenter unwilling to give grape, the chimp leaves but when they are unable they wait patiently. shows chimps can understand intentions and goals