Theory of mind
Understanding other people as people who have desires, beliefs and their own representation of the world and that it can differ from ours
–> understanding this helps is make sense of what others say and why they act the way they do
False belief task
Test of understanding mental representations
–> 4 y/o will not understand that ones beliefs are usually different from how the world really is
+ one will act accordingly
Sally Anne task
Simpler Version of the false belief task
–> 4 y/o will understand that Sally will look for her marbles where she had seen them last
=> due to shorter story + more salient features
Smarties task
Children were shown a closed box of smarties with pencils inside.
They were asked to predict what other children might say what is in the box
–> Younger than 4 y/o will say pencils instead of smarties
=> 3 y/o lack insight into their own minds
=> don’t acknowledge that before they were told that there are pencils in the box, they too thought there are smarties
Development of the ability to distinguish between mental states using language
2 y/o: Children use words that refer to their internal states of perception
ex.: “see”, “want”
3 y/o: Children use cognitive terms
–> distinguish between mental states + external reality
ex.: “know”, “think”, “remember”
Development of understanding the relationship between seeing and knowing
2 y/o: Children understand the relationship between seeing and knowing
3y/o: Children understand that different people can have different views of the same object
4y/o: Children realize that people may have different views of objects that are equally visible to both
Development of understanding the appearance-reality distinction
3y/o: Children do not realize that one person can have a true belief about an object and the other a false belief
–> only consider one interpretation of an object
4y/o: Children understand that at least one representation/ interpretation of an object is false
Development of the ability to predict behavior
2 y/o: Children understand that people have desires which influence the way they behave
3y/o: Children understand that people have beliefs about the world in addition to desires
Which factors influence the successful understanding of theory of mind ?
- Language ability
- Siblings
- -> between 2-4 years, child-child interaction increases - Family size
- -> children interacting with other children + adults develop these skills at earlier age
Development of theory of mind after the age of 4
Children will realize that emotional responses are also based on a persons representation of the world
Understanding of surprise
Can only be achieved when one understands false belief
–> it rehires an understanding that the representation of the world was disconfirmed
First order belief
A belief that involves having a belief about someone else having a belief
–> “I think that she thinks that..”
Second order belief
A belief that involves understanding that someone can belief about a third person
–> “I think that she thinks, that he thinks..”
(Age of 8)
WELMANS theory of the development of theory of mind
Childrens understanding of mind develops in 3 phases
2y/o: Children assume that peoples desires influence behavior
3y/o: Children consider a persons desires and beliefs about the world
4y/o: Children acknowledge beliefs can also had inaccurate interpretations
PERNERs theory of the development of theory of mind
When children understand “metarepresentation” they will understand theory of mind
–> understanding the distinction between what is being referred to and what is being represented
Which impairments do children with autism have in regard to theory of mind ?
- Qualitative impairments in social interaction
–> Failure to develop relations, lack of eye contact
- Qualitative impairments in communication
–> Delay in development of language
- Restricted repetitive + stereotyped patterns one behavior
Why are children with ASD unable to master the “Sally Anne task” ?
Children with ASD have difficulty in tasks that require the appreciation of another false belief
–> Only 20% of children with ASD at the age of 4 succeeded
Mechanical story
The action of this kind of story does not involve any people
Behavioral story
People are included but it does not require an understanding of what they are thinking
Mentalistic story
Requires an understanding of the beliefs of the characters in the story
–> ASD children were unable to understand these kinds of stories
False photograph task
Test of understanding non mental representations
–> taking a picture of a bear on the chair, then moving it to the bed
Will the picture show the bear on the chair or on the bed ?
–> children with ASD have no difficulty with non mental representations
Joint/Shared attention mechanism
Mechanism that combines information about our own direction of gaze and another persons direction of gaze
–> allows a child to understand the focus of another’s attention
=> lack of shared attention is an early deficit in ASD
The emergence of theory of mind before the age of 4
Preschoolers: Can perform correctly if key features of the narrative are overlearned or of a specific phrasing is used
<2 y/o: Children understand desires + emotions, as being subjective
–> differing social interactive experiences shape childrens minds
–> differences in how families talk about their feelings might shape their understanding of emotions
Theory of mind deficit
States that individuals with autism fail to impute mental states to themselves and others
Problem: 20% of autistic children passed the false belief task
–> deficit is not universal
Executive dysfunction theory
Suggests that autism can be explained as a deficit in executive functions in the brain
–> not all individuals with autism show executive problems
Inhibition test
Test in wich the participant has to inhibit a prepotent response
–> children with autism have difficulties here
Executive memory tests
Task in which participants have to shift their attention between stimuli
–> children with autism have no cognitive flexibility
Reduced generalization theory
People with autism have difficulties generalizing newly learned behavior to a new environment
–> fail to see connections
Domain - General Theories
Development of ToM stems from a general skill which has effect on several different areas
- -> ToM abilities
- -> understanding of physical aspects
- -> language
Domain - Specific Theories
Development of ToM stems from special knowledge, processes + mechanisms that only affect ToM skills
BARON COHENs theory on the development of theory of mind
There are specific brain mechanisms devoted to the understanding of other human beings
( Domain specific theory )
Dyadic Joint Attention
Involves two parties
ex.: mother + child
Tryadic Joint Attention
Involves three parties
ex.: mother + child + object
What are the precursors of the development of ToM ?
- Gaze following/ Face perception
- Joint Attention
- Pretense
- -> related to dual representation - Desire
- -> to 18m. child is able to make a proper representation about what others want - Appearance - reality distinction
- Perspective taking
Weak Central coherence theory
Children with autism tend to focus on details rather on the whole thing
–> Domain-general theory
