Social Cognition - Theory Of Mind

Question 1

Theory of mind

Answer 1

The ability that each of us has to feel or know what other people are feeling
• Helps us understand emotions and intentions that informs people’s behaviour

Question 2

Theory of mind as an explanation for autism

Answer 2

Suggests people who have autism suffer from ‘mind blindness’ - defective or lack of an innate theory of mind mechanism
• similar to egocentrism as identified by Piaget
• explains why autistic people struggle to appreciate emotional perspectives or intentions of others

Question 3

Sally-Anne task

Answer 3

• Sally puts the marble in her basket
• While Sally is away, Anne moves the marble into her box
• When Sally returns, where will she look for the marble?

BARON-COHEN - false belief task
• 20 high function ASD children
• Control groups of 27 without + 14 with Down syndrome

• 85% of children in the control groups correctly identified
• 20% of ASD children were able to

Question 4

EVALUATION

Answer 4

•WIMMER AND PERNER - false belief task
Maxi/his mother/blue green cupboards and chocolate

3 year olds - incorrectly
4 year olds - correctly
Develops around 4 years old regularly

• helpful in understanding the features of autism and ultimately helping to develop coping mechanisms for people with autism and people who support them

~~

• children who person poorly on the task still enjoy role play based play that requires TOMM - complexity of tasks not defects/lacks to TOM