Theory Of Mind Flashcards
(33 cards)
Theory of mind
Our personal understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling. It is sometimes called ‘ mind-reading’
False belief
The understanding that others may hold and act on mistaken ( false) beliefs
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
An umbrella term for a wide range of symptoms
All disorders on the spectrum share impairments to three main areas : empathy, social interaction and social imagination
Autism
A mental disorder which usually appears in early childhood and typically involves avoidance of social contact, abnormal language and so-called stereotypic behaviours.
Sally Anne Task
A story about two dolls. Sally doesn’t know that her marble has moved but the audience do. Where will she look for her ball? Where she has left it or where the audience know it is? Used to test whether a child has theory of mind (TOM)
Overview
TOM refers to the ability that each of us has to ‘mind-read’ or to have a personal theory of what other people know or are feeling or thinking. Each of us us has a TOM when we have a belief about what is in someone else’s mind.
Different methods used to study ToM
-intentional reasoning research - assesses the emergence on a simple ToM in toddlers.
-false belief tasks - assess a more sophisticated level of ToM
-eyes task- assessses advanced ToM in older children and adults ; participants judge complex emotions with minimal information about facial expressions.
Intentional reasoning in toddlers
-melt off (1988) provided convincing evidence to show that toddlers ages about 18 months understand adult intentions when carrying out simple actions
Intentional reasoning in toddlers - procedure
Children of 18 months observed adults place beads into a jar.
In the experimental condition the adults appeared to struggle with this and dropped the beads
In the control condition the adults placed the beads successfully
Intentional reasoning in toddlers - findings
In both conditions, the toddlers placed the beads in the jar; they dropped no more beads in experimental condition. This suggests they were imitating what the adult INTENDED to do.
Intentional reasoning in toddlers - conclusions
This kind of research shows that very young children have simple ToM
False Belief Tasks
These were developed to test whether children can understand that people can believe something that’s not true. The first was developed by Wimmer and Perner
False Belief Tasks- procedure
They told 3-4 year olds a story in which Maxi left his chocolate in a blue cupboard in the kitchen and the want to the playground. Later maxis mother used some of the chocolate in her cooking and placed the remainder in the green cupboard
Children were asked where maxi would look for his chocolate
False Belief Tasks- findings
Most 3 year olds incorrectly said that he would look in the green cupboard. They know that it is in the green cupboard but dont realise that maxi doesn’t know his mother moved it.
However. Most 4 year old correctly identified the blue cupboard
False Belief Tasks- conclusions
This suggests that ToM undergoes a shift and becomes more advanced at around 4 years.
Sally Anne studies
-Baren-Cohen et al created a false belief task called the Sally Anne task.
-children were told a story involving two dolls, sally and Anne.
-Sally places a marble in her basket, but when sally is not looking Anne moves the marble to her box.
-the task is to work out where Sally will look for her marble.
-understanding that Sally doesn’t know that Anne has moved the marble requires ad understanding of sallys false beliefs about where it id.
Barren Cohen and colleagues have explored the link between ToM deficits and ASD using false belief tasks
Sally Anne - procedure
-20 high functioning children diagnosed with ASD and control groups of 14 children with Down syndrome and 27 without diagnosis were individual administered the Sally-Anne study.
Sally-Anne - findings
85% of children in the control groups correctly identified where Sally would look for her marble. 20% of children in the ASDF group correctly answered.
Sally Anne- Conclusions
This difference demonstrated that ASD involves a ToM deficit. Barhon-Cohen and hiss colleagues suggested that deficits in ToM might be a complete explanation for ASD.
Testing Older Children and Adults
-asperger syndrome (AS) is a type of ASD characterised by problems with empathy, social communication and imagination but normal language development. Studies of older children and adults with AS showed that this group succeeded easily on false belief tasks. This contradicted the idea that ASD can be explained by ToM deficits.
-However, Baron-Cohen and colleagues developed a more challenging task to assess ToM in adolescents and adults. The Eyes task
The Eyes Task
-involves reading complex emotions in pictures of faces just showing a small area around the eyes. Baron-Cohen et al found that adults with AS and those with a diagnosis of high functioning ASD struggled with the Eyes Task. Adults on the autistic spectrum had a mean score of 16.3 compared to ‘typical’ participants with a mean score of 20.3 out of maximum of 25. This supports the ideas that ToM deficits might be cause of ASD.
Biological Basis
-the fact that ToM appears to develop at a particular age and the fact that its likely to be absent in many people with autism suggest a biological basis. Baron-Cohen has proposed a ToM module (ToMM) which is a specific mechanism that matures in the brain around the age of four and explains an individuals ability to understand the mental states of other people.
-with the development of ToM comes the ability to manipulate and deceive others by hiding ones emotions and intentions. This occurs from three years of age.
Mirror neurons
Neurons that fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of the others.
The Discovery of Mirror Neurons
-Rizzolatti at al were studying electrical activity in a monkeys motor cortex (responsible for movement) when one of the researchers reached for their lunch in the view of the monkey. The monkeys motor cortex became activated in exactly the same way as it did when the animal itself reached for food; the same brain cells fired when the monkey reached itself or watched someone else reach. These were called mirror neurons because they mirror motor activity in another individual.
