False belief tasks/Sally-Anne study

False belief tasks:

Wimmer and Perner:

Aim:

to investigate whether a child can understand that someone else might believe something the child knows now to be true

Procedure:

  • children are told (acted out with dolls and matchboxes)
  • “Maxi’s mother has bought home some chocolate to make a cake
  • maxi sees her put chocolate into the blue cupboards
  • then maxi goes out to play
  • his mother uses the chocolate for the cake and puts it back in the green cupboard
  • when maxi comes back in he wants some chocolate”
  • children aged 3-9 are asked
  • “which cupboard will maxi look in?”

Results:

  • nearly all 3 year old say that chocolate is in the green cupboard - it is in the green cupboard but Maxi should think it is in the blue cupboard
  • from 4 years onwards some children gave the correct answer
  • by 6 years old al the children can do this

Sally-Anne study:

Baron-Cohen

Procedure:

  • 3 groups of participants:
      * 20 with ASD (age 12)
      * 14 with gown syndrome (age 12 but menta age much lower)
      * 27 non-autistic children (age 4 and 1/2)

Findings:

  • 85% in control groups correctly answered
  • 20% children with ASD answered correctly
  • children with down syndrome answered correctly
  • deficits in theory of mind may be an explanation for autism

Sally-Anne study for adults:

Baron-Cohen
  • Baron-Cohen developed a more challenging task to test older children and adults = eye task
  • looking at a picture of some eyes and identifying the emotion displayed
  • participants with Asperger’s (a type of ASD with problems with empathy, social communication and imagination, but normal language development) were able to complete the Sally-Anne study correctly but struggled with the eyes taks
  • adults with Asperger’s and those with high-functioning ASD struggled with the eyes task
  • theory of mind deficits may be the cause of ASD