Theory of mind

1. ‘Mind-read’ or a theory of what other people know/ feel/ think

2. Innately but develops as humans get older. It is thought to explain autism.

3. ‘False belief tasks’

What is the theory of mind?

1. The ability that everyone can what?

2. How does the ability develop? What happens if a child doesn’t have ToM?

3. How do psychologists test this ability?

1. Something that isn’t true.

2. If children believe something isn’t true, they have ToM as they can understand it from someone else’s perspective and not just their own.

How does a false belief task work?

1. A test to test if children can believe what?

2. What does it mean if they do believe this?

1. Differences in communicating, experiencing difficulty in building relationships with others and in using language and abstract concepts.

2. Seeing the world from another’s point of view.

3. Mind-blindness - an inability to understand what other people are thinking and feeling.

ToM and autism

1. Autism is a neurodivergence characterised by what 3 traits?

2. What do children with autism often have challenges with?

3. Because of this, the absence of ToM has been suggested as an explanation of autism. A psychologist said that people with autism experienced what?

1. Meltzoff

2. Children aged 18 months (with no ASD diagnosis) observed adults place beads in a jar.

3. The adults appeared to struggle with this and dropped the beads.

4. The adults placed the beads in the jar successfully.

5. The children placed the beads in the jar - they dropped no more beads in the experimental group.

Intentional Reasoning in toddlers - PROCEDURE

1. Which psychologist assessed this?

2. What was the sample, and what did the children have to do?

3. What happened in the experimental condition?

4. What happened in the control condition?

5. What happened in both conditions (what did the children do)?

intentional reasoning

what did Meltzoff assess in toddlers?

1. They put the beads in the jar as the children were imitating what the adult had intended to do rather than what they actually did.

2. Children have an understanding of adult intentions when carrying out simple actions. This shows children have a simple ToM, which may be an innate skill which develops with age to become more sophisticated.

Intentional Reasoning in toddlers - RESULTS

1. What happened to children in the experimental condition?

2. What did Meltzoff conclude? (What do children understand, and what does this show about ToM?)

Baron-Cohen et al

who conducted the Sally-Anne study?

1. to test if a lack of ToM could be an explanation for autism. Used a false belief tasks to test whether children can understand that people can believe something that is not true.

2. 20 children diagnosed at being ASD

3. 14 children with Down’s syndrome and 27 who were neurotypical.

4. Children were told a story involving 2 dolls, Sally and Anne. Sally placed a marble in her basket, but when Sally is not looking Anne moves the marble to her box.

5. To work out where Sally will look for her marble.

The Sally-Anne study - Baron-Cohen et al - PROCEDURE

1. What was the aim of his study? What did they use and what did this test?

2. What was the sample of the experimental group?

3. What was the sample of the control group?

4. What was the procedure? (2/3 parts)

5. What is the task in the procedure?

1. 85%

2. 4 - 20%

3. Suggests that ASD involves a ToM deficit and has been used as a sole explanation for autism.

The Sally-Anne study - Baron-Cohen et al - FINDINGS

1. What % of children in the control group correctly identified where Sally would look for the marble?

2. How many children in the ASD group could answer this? (Also, what % was this?)

3. What does this difference suggest?

1. Older children and adults with autism succeeded easily on false belief tasks.

2. People read complex emotions in pictures showing just a small area around the eyes.

3. Adults with an ASD diagnosis struggled with the Eyes task which supports the idea that ToM deficit may be a cause of ASD.

Testing older children and adults

1. Why was the idea that autism can wholly be explained by ToM deficit was not supported?

2. Baron-Cohen developed a more challenging task - what does this involve?

3. What did Baron-Cohen find?

Baron-Cohen

who developed the Eyes Test?