Social cognition - theory of mind Flashcards
(11 cards)
how did Meltzoff study theory of mind in toddlers including experimental condition and control condition and the outcome?
Meltzoff allowed children to observe adults placing beads into a jar
- experimental condition - adults appeared to struggle with this and dropped some of the beads outside the jar
-control - adult successfully placed the beads into the jar
in both conditions, toddlers successfully placed the beads into the jar, suggesting that theory were imitating what the adult intended to do - rather than what they actually did - demonstrating ToM
what is the theory of mind and how is it tested?
ToM is a personal theory or belief about what other people know, thinking or feeling
it is tested via different methods depending on age
What did Wimmer and Perner do in their investigation to study the ToM?
Wimmer and Perner told 3-4 year olds a story in which
- Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen
- after Maxi’s mother had used some of the chocolate in her cooking she placed the remainder of it in a green cupboard
the children had to say where Maxi would look for his chocolate - most of the 3 year olds incorrectly said Maxi would look in the green cupboard
most of the 4 year olds said that Maxi should look in the blue cupboard - demonstrating ToM
How was ToM tested using the Sally and Anne story?
children were told a story involving 2 dolls, Sally and Anne
- Sally places a marble in her basket
-Sally leaves the room
Anne moves the marble to her box
-Sally returns
-Where does Sally look for her marble?
In order to understand that Sally does not know that Anne has moved the marble, a child needs an understanding of Sally’s false belief about where it is
what did Baron-Cohen do?
Baron-Cohen used the Sally Anne task to test 20 high functioning children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and control groups of 27 children without a diagnosis and 14 with Down syndrome
85% of children in the control group correctly identified where Sally would look for her marble but only 20% of the children with ASD did, suggesting that ASD involves a ToM deficit
ASD and links to ToM - Baron-Cohen
older children with ASD can succeed on false belief tasks despite problems with empathy, social communication, etc
this questions whether ASD can be explained by ToM deficits
Baron-Cohen developed the Eyes task as amore challenging test of ToM and found that adults with high functioning ASD struggles
this supports the idea that ToM deficits might be the cause of ASD
limitation - is reliance on false belief tasks to test the theory
Bloom and German suggests that false belief tasks require other cognitive abilities (e.g. visual memory) as well as ToM, so failure may be due to a memory deficit and not ToM
furthermore, children who cannot perform well on false belief tasks still enjoy pretend-play, which requires ToM
this means that false belief tasks may not really measure ToM, meaning ToM lacks evidence
limitation - it’s difficult to distinguish ToM from perspective -taking
perspective-taking and ToM are different cognitive abilities. It can be very difficult to be sure we are measuring one and not the other
e.g. in intentional reasoning tasks a child might be visualising the beads task from the adult perspective rather than expressing a conscious understanding of their intention
this means that tasks designed to measure ToM may actually measure perspective taking
Strength of ToM research is its application to understanding ASD
People with ASD find ToM tests difficult which shows they do have problems understanding what others think
this in turn explains why people with ASD find social interaction difficult because they don’t pick up cues for what others are thinking and feeling
this means that ToM research has real world relevance
counterpoint
ToM does not provide a complete explanation for ASD. Not everyone with ASD experiences ToM problems, and ToM problems are not limited to people with ASD (Tager -Flusberg)
this means that there must be other factors that are involved in ASD, and the association between ASD and ToM is not as strong as first believed
evaluation extra
Perner suggests that ToM develops alongside other cognitive abilities , largely as a result of maturity. Research shows same development of ToM cross-culturally (Lui)
Astington suggests ToM develops from interactions with others, supported by Lui who also found that ToM appeared at different ages in different cultures
this means that the rate of development is modified by the social environment - nature vs nurture
