THEORY OF MIND Flashcards
Thoughts are unobservable so…
We can’t access the content of someone’s mind t/f we actively seek to make sense of others’ behaviour by figuring out what someone is trying (or intending) to do, what they want and what they are thinking.
How do we figure out what someone is trying (or intending) to do
- We understand that other people are intentional agents - we do things because they want things to happen/they have a goal.
- Ability to take another person’s perspective (put yourself in their shoes)
How TOM develops
TOM generally tends to (according to research) develop around the age of 4 - this is because research using false belief tasks has found that 3 year olds fail to attribute false belief to another person/child whereas 4 year olds correctly realise that the other person would have false beliefs.
After age 4, their ability to use TOM develops…
- at age 5, children can use the idea of false beliefs to predict when a person will be surprised (HADWIN + PERNER, 1991) = attributing an emotion(s) to another person.
T/F, deception emerges around age 5 (PESKIN, 1992)
TOM does seem to be causally related to the ability to lie (DING et al., 2015)
Why is TOM important to us
We live in a complex world + as humans we try and make our world more predictable (by trying to predict other people’s behaviour)
How do we reduce our complex world down to a simpler understanding
We observe others’ behaviour, attributing intentions, desires + beliefs and then use this as a basis for predicting what they might try to do next.
May even try to manipulate others’ behaviour using these same processes.
How is TOM measured in children?
A crucial test of TOM is the ability to attribute false beliefs to others e.g. tooth fairy > adult vs. child
A standard false belief task:
> moving item from box that it was originally put in and asking where someone else may expect the item to be
> crucial test is whether children are able to attribute a false belief to the character.
How is TOM measured in children?
A crucial test of TOM is the ability to attribute false beliefs to others e.g. tooth fairy > adult vs. child
A standard false belief task:
> moving item from box that it was originally put in and asking where someone else may expect the item to be
> crucial test is whether children are able to attribute a false belief to the character.
WIMMER + PERNER (1983); FRITH (2003)
How we know/have been able to infer things about the development of TOM
Research on the false belief task e.g.1 The 'Sally-Anne' false belief task (FRITH, 2003) - marbles - basket - 4 year olds pass, 3 year olds fail ROBUST finding (even when scenarios, objects etc. are changed) - shows the difference in 3 to 4 year olds.
e.g.2
The Smarties Test (PERNER ET AL, 1987)
Keeping track of others’ beliefs, and your own.
- ‘what’s inside the smarties tube’ and what a friend will think is inside.
3 year olds fail, 4 year olds pass
What did Ding et al., 2015 specify that TOM seems to be causally related to?
The ability to lie (DING et al., 2015)
When does TOM first develop?
TOM isn’t completely absent in young children (children < 4)…
i.e. 6 month olds understand that people act on their intentions (Woodward, 1998)
i.e.2 2 year olds seem to understand that their thoughts can be different from the state of reality (LESLIE, 1987) - this is shown through pretend play (involves having a bit of a departure from reality).
What is the shift between ages 2 and 3 in terms of TOM development?
3 year olds have an awareness that thoughts exist - they understand mental entities have different properties to physical ones - you can’t touch a dream (ESTES ET AL., 1989).
(shift between ages 2 and 3 in understanding that thoughts exist).
When does language start to develop?
Language, involving mental state language starts to develop from about age 2 (@ age 2, children use language about perceptual properties i.e. they ‘want’, ‘see’, ‘taste’).
Then from age 3 they start using words involving cognitive states - words around thinking - i.e. ‘know’ and ‘think’
- when 3 year olds use these 2 words together, this shows an understanding of contrasting mental states (reality vs. belief)
When does the ability to understand that other people have desires develop?
around 18 months of age.
18-month old infants can understand people may have desires different to their own (REPACHOLI + GOPNIK, 1997).
Incomplete beliefs
= not full understanding, some understanding = ‘incomplete’
by age 3, children understand that their desires can motivate behaviour as well as beliefs AND they understand that behaviour might be motivated by incomplete beliefs.
it seems that understanding incomplete beliefs is easier than understanding inaccurate (false) beliefs.
Example of an incomplete belief
if a child learns a character thinks books are only on the shelf, not in the toy box, children will guess the character will only look on the shelf, even if the child knows the books are in the toy box too (WELLMAN, 1990)
(= understanding other people’s incomplete beliefs)
