Lecture 6 - Theory of Mind

Psychodiagnostics

a branch of psychology concerned with the use of tests in the evaluation of personality and the determination of factors underlying human behavior

- complex puzzle

What is Theory of Mind?

- the ability to attribute mental states (beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge, ect.) to oneself, and to others

- to understand that others have mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives, ect.) that are different from one's own

People with Theory of Mind

- Understand they have emotions

- Understand they have desires / motives (reason for what they do) and that these desires can affect their emotions

- they know thy have knowledge and can think about this knowledge

- there is a difference between thought and reality (What you think might be different from reality)

- assumptions about the world

- Others have their own mind, too (What you think might be different from what others think)

Why is the Theory of Mind important?

Without a theory of Mind you assume that others think, feel, and want the same things you think, feel and want

For what do humans need a Theory of Mind?

- Imagination (to see things from another view, from someone else's eyes)

- Discuss feelings / opinions

- Trust someone

- Give a clue

- Make a prediction

- Sarcasm / cynicism and riddles

- Emphaty

- Convince someone

- Explain behaviour

- Pretend / role play

- Altruism (not being selfish)

- Play devil's advocate

How do we access Theory of Mind?

If someone can have other assumptions than I do, I can answer questions about those assumptions

Example: False Believe Task, Unexpected Contents Task, Unexpected Transfer Task, Deceptive Box Task

False Believe Tasks / Unexpected Transfer Tests

- to access Theory of Mind

- to measure the understanding that other people can believe things which are not true (False Belief of someone else)

Examples of False Believe Tasks:

'Sally-Anne' test" or 'Sally-Anne' task"

Children are told or shown a story involving two characters, Sally and Anne, who have a basket and a box, respectively. Sally also has a marble, which she places into her basket, and then leaves the room. While she is out of the room, Anne takes the marble from the basket and puts it into the box. Sally returns, and the child is then asked where Sally will look for the marble.

+ The child passes the task if she answers that Sally will look in the basket, where Sally put the marble

- the child fails the task if she answers that Sally will look in the box, where the child knows the marble is hidden, even though Sally cannot know this, since she did not see it hidden there.

Maxi and the Chocolate

A boy leaves chocolate on a shelf and then leaves the room. His mother puts it in the fridge. To pass the task, the child must understand that the boy, upon returning, holds the false belief that his chocolate is still on the shelf.

To do this, it is suggested, one must understand how knowledge is formed, that people's beliefs are based on their knowledge, that mental states/representations can differ from reality and their own, and that people's behavior can be predicted by their mental states.

Pitfalls of False Believe Tasks

- child does not understand the story -> integrate clarification questions to assess whether the child understands the story

Unexpected Contents Task / Deceptive Box Test

- to access Theory of Mind

- to measure the understanding that there can be a difference between thought and reality (What you think might be different from reality)

In the "Unexpected contents", or "Smarties" task, experimenters ask children what they believe to be the contents of a box that looks as though it holds a candy called "Smarties". After the child guesses (usually) "Smarties", it is shown that the box in fact contained pencils. The experimenter then re-closes the box and asks the child what she thinks another person, who has not been shown the true contents of the box, will think is inside. The child passes the task if he/she responds that another person will think that "Smarties" exist in the box, but fails the task if she responds that another person will think that the box contains pencils

To do this, it is suggested, one must understand how knowledge is formed, that people's beliefs are based on their knowledge, that mental states/representations can differ from reality and their own, and that people's behavior can be predicted by their mental states.

First Order False Belief

- inferences about someone else's belief about a fact

- ability to understand a person's belief

- beliefs about other people's beliefs

Second Order False Belief

- ability to handle the belief of one person about the belief of another person

- ability to emphasize with a person's thought about another person's thoughts

Development of Theory of Mind - Age

4 years of age

Development of Theory of Mind

- When Children are about 4 years of age they suddenly succeed at False Belief Task

Why this sudden success/change?

- Radical conceptual shift in mental representational abilities (Wimmer & Perner)

- Children make use of Simulation (Harris)

- Children have to develop a naive theory of the mind (meta-cognition), to give them assess to their own and other minds (Gopnik)

Theory of Mind and Family

growing up in a large family is most favorable for faster awareness of false belief

Sudden Development of Theory of Mind - Theory by Wimmer and Perner

Radical Conceptual Shift in Mental Representational Abilities at age 4

Age of Passing a False Belief Task

- Generally: 4 years of age

- research suggests that children can already empathize with another person before they are 4 years old, and that theory of mind is already developing before the fourth birthday

By Adjustment of false believe task: adjustment to the wording of the question - when wording of the question can be better interpreted; adjustment of the task - when change happens on the spot (e.g. smarties replaced by pencil) -> 3 years olds are already able to pass the false believe task

Sudden Development of Theory of Mind - Theory by Harris

- Children make use of simulation: "If I were in his/her position, I would think..."

- theory of mind already develops between 3 - 4 years of age

Sudden Development of Theory of Mind - Theory by Gopnik

Children have to develop a naive Theory of the mind (meta-cognition), to give them access to their own and other minds

Gradual Development of Theory of Mind

Evidence: When researchers adapt the task, the results change

Example:

- Adapt wording of the question: about what point in time is the question? E.g. When you first saw this tube, before we opened it, what did you think was inside?

- Adapt procedure: e.g. posting test

-> If adapting the wording or the procedure, the children are able to solve the false belief task

Gradual Development of Theory of Mind - Age

- Children of 15 months seem to understand false belief (but they can't speak yet): they look longer at false belief (= Violation of Expectation)

- Also adults struggle with False Belief Tasks (e.g. because of hindsight bias)

Sudden Development of Theory of Mind vs. Gradual Development of Theory of Mind

Sudden Development of Theory of Mind: Children suddenly succeed on false beliefs tasks

Gradual Development of Theory of Mind: Concept behind the task is indication whether children are able to solve the task

Hindsight Bias (I-knew-it-all-along Phenomenon)

- the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

- in adults -> also adults struggle with false beliefs

Procedure:

1. Equal chances of two soccer teams

2. Researcher tells which team won

3. Who do you think won the match before I told you the results?

4. More adults tend to say they soccer team that actually won, even though they could not have known

Sudden Development of Theory of Mind vs. Gradual Development of Theory of Mind

around 4 years of age there is a sudden success on False Belief task, but Theory of Mind seems to develop gradually

Theory of Mind - Summary

- Theory of Mind is the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and to others and to understand that both mental states can be different

- important to attune to others

- Theory of Mind can be assessed using false belief tasks: unexpected transfer tasks, deceptive box tests

- around 4 years of age there is a sudden success on False Belief task, but Theory of Mind seems to develop gradually

Theory of Mind and Disabled Children

- Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have difficulties with theory of mind

- Children with Down Syndrome have a theory of Mind

- Children with Depression have a theory of Mind