Lecture 4 – Theory of Mind

‘Theory of mind’ definition (Permack & Woodruff, 1978)

attribution of mental states, perceptions, intensions, desires, emotions, thoughts, knowledge/ignorance, beliefs

What does understanding of mental states allow us to do?

explain and predict observational behaviour by inferring unobservable internal identities

Understanding of others’ perception meaning

What others can see, hear, etc

understanding of others’ attention meaning

What others can choose to attend to some aspects in their environment over others for reasons depending on their goals/interests

Can infants understand what others can see/perceive?

Yes! One year old infants and apes can and also seem to understand that others can too

Understanding of others’ goals meaning

knowing that others have an aim in mind and behave with persistence until they achieve that aim

Understanding of others’ intensions meaning

knowing others choose particular means or action plans to achieve their goals

Test of babies understanding goals/intentions (Meltzoff 1995)

18-month-old watched as adult successfully or failed to achieve some result (complete a task), and in both these conditions successfully achieved the result by helping the adult and showing them how to do the task

Do chimpanzees pass Meltzoff’s goal/intension study? (Tomesselo & Carpenter 2005)

Some do!

At what age do younger infants understand others’ goals?

6-, 9, 12-, and 18 month olds do!

What test showed that 6-, 9, 12-, and 18 month olds were able to understand others’ goals? (Behne, Carpenter, Call, & Tomesello (2005))

A game of passing toys, infant did not receive toy because experimenter either was unwilling or unable to give toy, infants showed to reach for the toy and be impatient

what were the results of the test which showed that 6-, 9, 12-, and 18 month olds were able to understand others’ goals? (Behne, Carpenter, Call, & Tomesello (2005))

9-, 12-, 18 month olds were more impatient when experimenter was unwilling to give toy compared to the unable to give toy condition, 6- month old was equally inpatient in both conditions

When newborn infants cry because of other babies crying, what is the reasoning for this?

emotional contagion which is completely involuntary, they do not understand the other baby is upset

At what age do infants begin to show concern? Hoffman (1988); Roth-Hanania et al. (2011)

8-10 months

At what age do infants begin to comfort others in distress? (Hoffman (1988); Roth-Hanania et al. (2011))

8-10 months

At what age can infants engage in affective perspective-taking (know when someone is sad even if they are not showing it on their face) Vaish et al., 2009)

18 months

Do apes understand empathy?

There have been several studies but is still controversial

At what age do infants begin to understand others’ desires?

14 and 18 months

How was the understanding of others desires tested? (Repacholi & Gopnik 1997)

examiner presented two bowls of food, one of appealing food (crackers) and one not appealing food (broccoli), infant tested both and was asked what they preferred (crackers), examiner tasted both and reacted to each with either happy or disgusted expression then would ask baby to give them one of them, and baby could deside which kind of food to give the experimenter

What were the the results of the understanding desires study? (Repacholi & Gopnik 1997)

18 month olds gave experimenter the food the experimenter reacted happily too even if it wasn’t the food they preferred, 14 month olds gave the experimenter the food the baby preferred

Understanding desires apes study (Buttleman, Call, & Tomasello 2009)

When presented 2 boxes, they chose the box the experimenter opened and looked happy about opening, but still not enough evidence yet of understanding desires completely

Understanding of others’ knowledge/ignorance experiment (Lizskowski, Carpenter & Tomasello 2008)

2 objects placed on slide, and she slid one down the slide, but another also slid down without experimenter knowing and then asked where the object which fell but didn’t know about was

What were the results of the understanding knowledge/ignorance study? (Liszkowski, Carpenter and Tomasello 2008)

12 month olds would point to the object which they know the experimenter didn’t see fall

Understanding others’ knowledge/ignorance chimpanzee test (Hare et al. 2000 2001, Kaminski et al. 2008)

2 chimpanzees put against each other, 2 peices of food placed infront of them with one of the chimapnzees only knowing about one of the foods, the other chimpanzee would often go for the food the other chimpanzee didn’t know about

why is the ‘explicit’ false belief test called ‘explicit’

the test involves participants having to make an active choice/decision

The classic ‘explicit’ false belief tests (change of location test) (Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith 1985, Wimmer & Perner 1983)

experimenter 1 puts marble in a basket and leaves, experimenter 2 comes and moves marble to a box and leaves, when experimenter 1 returns the baby is asked which place experimenter one will look for the marble in, where the marble is and where the marble was origionally

What were the results of the explicit false belief test (change of location test)? (Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith 1985, Wimmer & Perner 1983)

4+ year olds pass by saying experimenter 1 will look for the marble where she put it, whereas 3 year olds will say experimenter 1 will look for the marble in the box even though she put it in the basket

The classic ‘explicit’ false belief tests (smarties test) (Perner, Leekam & Wimmer 1987)

Infant is shown a smarties box and asked what it is and says smarties, but experimenter says its a pencil then states they’re going to ask someone else what it is, experimenter asks infant what the other person will say it is

what were the results of the classic ‘explicit’ false belief tests? (smarties test) (Perner, Leekam & Wimmer 1987)

4+ year olds passed and said that the other person would say it was smarties, 3-year olds fail by saying the other person will think the smarties box is a pencil

whys the ‘implicit’ false belief test called ‘implicit’?

because participants can just behave without making an active choice

“implicit” false belief test results: anticipatory looking (looking measure) (Clements & Perner 1994)

measuring which location children looked in anticipation of the objects return (“Where will he go?")

“implicit” false belief test results (Looking measure) (anticipatory looking)

evidence of implicit understanding at age 2 years, 11 months

‘implicit’ false belief test: Violation of expectation (Looking measure)(Onishi & Baillargeon 2005)

15-month-old infants looked longer at displays in which the experimenters search for a toy was inconsistent with her belief about the toy’s location

‘Implicit’ false belief test: Behavioural measure (Buttelmann, Carpenter & Tomasello 2009)

2 conditions (true and false), false belief: experimenter 1 put toy in a box and left room, then experimenter 2 moved the toy into a different box, true belief: experimenter one stayed in the room after putting the toy in a box and watched experimenter 2 put toy in the different box, in both conditions experimenter 1 pretended to not be able to open the original box he put the toy in, in false condition baby should show him where the toy was moved and open it for him, in true condition, baby should open the box he was trying to open to give him the toy

Result of false belief condition (Behavioural measure test)

Children at all three stages (16+ months) correctly used the experimenter belief to help him achieve his goal

Do chimpanzees pass or fail the false belief tests?

Fail, apart from anticipatory looking

Anticipatory looking monkey test (Krupenye et al. 2016) results

Chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans pass

Behavioural measure monkey test (Buttelmann et al. 2017) results

Apes pass! Apes pass the implicit but not explicit tests, just like human infants