Theory Of Mind

Question 1

Theory of mind

Answer 1

Our personal understanding of what other people are thinking and feeling. It is sometimes called ‘ mind-reading’

Question 2

False belief

Answer 2

The understanding that others may hold and act on mistaken ( false) beliefs

Question 3

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Autism

Answer 4

A mental disorder which usually appears in early childhood and typically involves avoidance of social contact, abnormal language and so-called stereotypic behaviours.

Question 5

Sally Anne Task

Answer 5

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)

Question 6

Overview

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

Different methods used to study ToM

Answer 7

-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.

Question 8

Intentional reasoning in toddlers

Answer 8

-melt off (1988) provided convincing evidence to show that toddlers ages about 18 months understand adult intentions when carrying out simple actions

Question 9

Intentional reasoning in toddlers - procedure

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Intentional reasoning in toddlers - findings

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Intentional reasoning in toddlers - conclusions

Answer 11

This kind of research shows that very young children have simple ToM

Question 12

False Belief Tasks

Answer 12

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

Question 13

False Belief Tasks- procedure

Answer 13

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

Question 14

False Belief Tasks- findings

Answer 14

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

Question 15

False Belief Tasks- conclusions

Answer 15

This suggests that ToM undergoes a shift and becomes more advanced at around 4 years.

Question 16

Sally Anne studies

Answer 16

-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

Question 17

Sally Anne - procedure

Answer 17

-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.

Question 18

Sally-Anne - findings

Answer 18

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.

Question 19

Sally Anne- Conclusions

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Testing Older Children and Adults

Answer 20

-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

Question 21

The Eyes Task

Answer 21

-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.

Question 22

Biological Basis

Answer 22

-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.

Question 23

Mirror neurons

Answer 23

Neurons that fire both in response to personal action and in response to action on the part of the others.

Question 24

The Discovery of Mirror Neurons

Answer 24

-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.

Question 25

Mirror neurons and intention

Answer 25

-Gallese and Goldman suggested that mirror neurons respond not just to observed actions but to intentions behind behaviour. They believed that we dont just interpret peoples actions with ref to our memory but that we stimulate others action in our motor system and experience their intentions using our mirror neurons.

-for example, diff brain areas associated with mirror neurons fire off when observing an individual pick up a cup from a table to drink from it that when they pick it up to clear it away.

Question 26

Lacoboni et al (2004)

Answer 26

-extended the investigation of these neurons to humans. Their aim was to investigate the neural and functional mechanisms underlying understanding the intentions of others

A- monkey at rest- mirror neuron resting state
B-grasping execution- mirror neuron fires
C-observation of grasping movements - mirror neuron fires

Question 27

Procedure

Answer 27

-23 right handed subjects watched 3 clips of visual stimuli.
1. Context only - only objects
2. Action only - grasping
3. Intention - context of action (either drinking or clearing up)
-same actin done in 2 diff contexts acquires diff meanings and may reflect 2 diff intentions.
-investigated whether observation of same grasping action , either with or without context elicited same/ diff mirror neurons.
-if mirror neuron codes type of observed action and its immediate goal context shouldn’t influence.
-but if mirror neuron system codes intention associated with action, context modulate activity in mirror neuron areas
-fMRI scanning used to measure brain activity.

Question 28

Results

Answer 28

Observing grasping actions embedded in contexts yielded greater activity in mirror neuron areas in the inferior frontal cortex, associated with grasping, than observing actions without contexts or while observing contexts only.

Question 29

Conclusions

Answer 29

Premotor mirror neuron areas previously thought to be involved in on;y action recognition are are also involved in understanding the intentions of others which is the basis of empathy.

Question 30

Strauss et al

Answer 30

Reported that individuals with damage to frontal lobes often unable to empathise with and read other peoples intentions and were easy to deceive.
This suggests damage to the mirror neuron system and emphasises its importance in typical human social cognition.

Question 31

Mirror neurons and perspective taking

Answer 31

-its been suggested that mirror neurons are important in ToM and the ability to take others perspectives.
-if mirror neurons fire in response to others actions and intentions, this might give us a neural mechanism for experiencing and understanding other peoples perspectives and emotional states.
-it may allow us to interpret what others are thinking and feeling.

Question 32

Mirror neurons and human evolution

Answer 32

-Ramachandran suggested mirror neurons are so important that they’ve shaped human evolution.
-uniquely complex social interactions we have as humans require a brain system that facilitates an understanding of intention, emotion and perspective.
-without these cognitive abilities we wouldn’t be able to live in the large groups with the complex social roles and rules that characterise human culture
-Ramachandran suggest mirror neurons are key to understanding way humans have developed as social species.

Question 33

Mirror neurons and ASD

Answer 33

-ASD is associated with problems with social- cognitive abilities such as perspective taking. If children with ASD can be shown to have poor mirror neuron system then this may go a long way to explaining ASD.

-Ramachandran and Oberman have proposed ‘broken mirror. Theory of ASD. This is the idea that neurological deficits including dysfunction in mirror neuron system prevent a child imitating and understanding social behaviour in others
-explain why ppl with ASD typically mimic adult behaviour less that others
-problems with mirror neuron system could therefore lead to difficulties in social communication as children to not develop the usual abilities to read intentions and emotions in others.