theory of mind

what is theory of mind

personal theory of what other people know or are feeling/ thinking. referred to as “mind reading”. not present at birth but develops as we age

describe intentional reasoning

an understanding of what someone aims to do when carrying out simple actions

research support for intentional reasoning

toddlers watching adults successfully and fail to put beads in a jar. when given the beads and jar, toddlers put the beads in the jar successfully meltzoff

define false belief

seeing if children can believe something that’s not true

briefly describe the sally anne task

sally put a marble in a basket and walked away. when she was away, anne put the marble in the box. where will sally look for the marble when she is back, where is the marble, where was the marble

sample for the sally anne task

20 children with autism, 14 downs syndrome children, 27 neurotypical children

mental and physical age of children with autism

mental 5.5, physical 12

mental and physical age of children with down syndrome

mental 3, physical 11

mental and physical age of neurotypical children

4.5

results of sally anne study

all got q1 and 2 correct.

85% of neurotypical children for q3 correct

86% of children with down syndrome got q3 correct

20% of children with autism got q3 correct

what do the results of the sally anne study suggest

autism may be linked to an issue with tom as it can’t be explained by general intellectual disability

what study is used for older participants

the eyes task

AO3 research

- poor methodology: younger children may fail to understand false belief tasks as the language may be too complex. “where will he look for the chocolate” may be interpreted as “where is the chocolate"

- low internal validity: to pass you need more cognitive abilities than tom, you need to remember the story. giving visual aids increased success in younger asd children

- eye task lacks external validity: have more visual cues to go off of than a pair of eyes irl