Theory of Mind

Question 1

2 revolutions in first year of life

Answer 1

1. 2-months shift: social smiling, reacting to contingencies (if I smile, someone smiles back).
2. 9-month revolution: understand others’ goals, follows others’ perception and attention (joint attention).

Question 2

Thiele et al. (2021) when do preferences for social interactions increase?

Answer 2

9 months.

Question 3

Thiele et al. (2021) when do visual preference and joint attention behaviour increase? What is the correlation?

Answer 3

1. 7 months.
2. No strong correlation.

Question 4

Gredebaeck & Melinder (2010) social expectations and irrational social interactions

Answer 4

Only 12-month-old children showed increased pupil dilation in response to
irrational social interactions.

Question 5

Melzoff & Moore (1983) imitation

Answer 5

Imitation of basic expressions at only a few days old. Argued that it is the first common contingency between self and others, and helps make sense of goal-directed actions and intentions of others (ToM).

Question 6

Oostenbroek et al. (2016) imitation

Answer 6

Lack of specificity and consistency for imitation. Tongue protrusion for any activity and only 50% responded.

could be an automatic response, not a sign of active partnership.

Question 7

Imitation debate and when reliable imitation first emerges

Answer 7

No evidence of true imitation effect early on. Instead, reliable imitation first emerges around 6-8 months. No innate specialised module for imitation - emergent product.

Question 8

Zmyj et al. (2009) rational imitation head turn out lamp

Answer 8

Hands free, hands occupied, hands restrained, and baseline conditions.

9 month olds: similar hands only/head touch rates across all conditions.
12 month olds: more head touch for hands free condition, more hands only for hands restrained condition.

Imitation is not just copying others’ actions - understand others’ motivations.

Question 9

Intention-goal psychology timeline

Answer 9

First 2 years of life.

1. First year of life: intention understanding and gaze following.
2. Second year of life: visual perspective taking, completing the goal of others’ actions instead of actions themselves, understanding others’ desires.

Question 10

Theory of mind definition

Answer 10

The ability to reflect on the contents of one’s own and other’s minds.

Question 11

False belief meaning

Answer 11

Understand that a person’s actions are determined by what they think, not just reality itself.

Question 12

What are the 3 performance limitations of FB tasks?

Answer 12

1. High verbal demands.
2. Demands on memory (representing actors while they are not present).
3. Unusual prompt may ‘throw off’ participants.

Question 13

Belief-desire psychology 4-5th year of life

Answer 13

1. 4th year of life: FB understanding, objects can appear different to others, correct others’ perspectives.
2. 5th year of life: FB understanding, others form evaluative judgements of their behaviour.

Question 14

Onishi and Baillargeon (2005) implicit FB task

Answer 14

Cumulative looking time (VoE). 15-month-olds looked longer when actor search in the box that matched reality but violated the actor’s (false) belief.

Question 15

Kovac et al. (2010)

Answer 15

7 months. Infants looked longer when agent acted according to reality (false belief). Suggests infants cannot help but track others’ mental state, not just reality.

Question 16

Southgate et al. (2007) polar bear

Answer 16

2 years anticipatory looking. Significantly more infants looked first towards the FB box. Failures to replicate.

Question 17

3 accounts for ToM

Answer 17

1. Nativist:
2. Dual-process: system 1 for perception-goal psychology; system 2 for belief-desire psychology.
3. Cognitive emergence:

Question 18

ToM timeline

Answer 18

1. Birth.
2. 9-month revolution: basic ToM (perception-goal psychology) and shared intentionality.
3. Age 1-3 years: refinement of basic ToM.
4. Age 4 years: fully-fledged meta-representation ToM (belief-desire psychology).
5. Continued refinement and recursive ToM into adulthood.

Question 19

4 implicit ToM measures

Answer 19

1. VoE looking time.
2. Anticipatory looking.
3. Interaction.
4. Altercentric bias.

Question 20

ManyBabies 4 recommendations

Answer 20

1. Increase sample size and widen participation.
2. Standardise research practices with other labs.
3. Open science practices (i.e. preregistration).
4. Create “best practices” materials and guidelines for experimental procedures and data analysis

Question 21

Which ManyBabies is testing implicit ToM? What are are the participants?

Answer 21

MB2. 18 - 27 months + adults.