theory of mind

• learning outcomes

  • describe theory of mind and describe methods used to test it
  • describe the development of theory of mind
  • discuss the fundamental skills that underpin theory of mind
• theory of mind is the ability to understand that other people have their own thoughts and feelings
• mind is a theory in two senses:

  • theoretical construct; we can only infer peoples mental states from their behaviour
  • its a construct that allows us to understand (theorise about) other peoples behaviour
• understanding the mind: we understand that

  • we have emotions and desires, and these are linked (e.g. I am happy when a desire is satisfied)
  • we have knowledge
  • we have beliefs
  • an object in the mind is not the same as a real object (e.g. I cannot touch an imagined object)
• understanding the mind: we understand that

  • we have metacognition ( e.g. i forget phone numbers unless I write them down)
  • our minds determine how we behave
  • other people also have a mind
  • other people may have beliefs that are different from our own
• how might children develop a theory of mind

  harris suggests:

  • understanding other people results from understanding tourself in their position
  • this requires the following skills:

  1. self awareness: emerges 18-20 mo
  2. capacity for pretence: pretend play emerges by age 2 years
  3. ability to distinguish real from pretend: stable by 3-4 years. before this, child not sure if others are pretending or not
• acuiring a ToM - harris

  1. self awareness - child becomes aware of their own mental states
  2. capacity for pretence - child develops the ability to project their mental states: onto inanimate objects (symbolic play) onto other people
  3. ability to distinguish real from pretend (child develops realisation that the imagined mental state of other people can differ from their own mental state
• development of self-awareness

  lewis & brooks-gunn 'rouge experiment'

  • 9-24 mo
  • placed in front of mirror
  • mother wipes childs nose
  • children <15 mo: smile but never touch own nose
  • childen > 18 months - most children touch own nose
• how do children recognise themselves?

  possibilities: contingency cues (mirror image moves with self-produced motion)

  feature cues (stable facial and bodily features)

  lewis & brooks- gunn

  asked:

  • is contingency important (live / pre-recorded video of self)
  • do children use feature cues (static images of self/ other child)

  examined visual preference

  found:

  • Recognition of self develops gradually over first 2yrs of life
  • Early recognition uses contingency cues (prefer self on live video)
  • Can use feature cues only >~15mo (prefer pic of self to other child)
• consistency of the self over time

  povinelli et al

  • 2-4 yr olds
  • surreptitiously put large sticker on child's head
  • photographed and videoed them
  • several minutes delay, then showed pictures and videos to children
  • only children >3 yrs reached for the sticker
  • suggests young children not realise self in the past is still the self
  • suggests awareness of continued existence of self is limited before age 3-4 yrs
• evidence from children's speech:

  • 2 yrs: use words relating to the self: 'I', 'me' and own name , can correctly reverse I and you when listening to others
  • suggests that self-concept is quite well formed when these language developments occur
• development of self-awareness

  summary

  • self awareness does not emerge in an all-or-none way:
  • contingency cues give way to feature cues
  • awareness of self over time develops
• acquiring a theory of mind

  sense of self and understanding others

  • understanding the self provides a way to understand others
  • evidence for this link 1) empathy and 2) deception
• sense of self and understanding others

  • empathy
  • bischof kohler (1988) - examined relationship between self-awareness and empathy
  • tested 16-24 mo

  1. rouge test (like lewis and brooks-gunn)
  2. empathy test (measured empathetic responses when playing with an adult who acts sad)

  Found strong correlation - Empathy emerges around 20 mo (cf. emergence of self-awareness)
• sense of self and understanding others

  deception

  • requires understanding that other people can have different beliefs from our own
  • when can children deliberately deceive
  • cole : deception in 3 and 4 yr old girls
  • children rated list of 10 gifts from 'best' to 'worst'
  • then given picture story tasks
  • after task 1: experimenter gives child 'best' gift; task 2 ' worst' gift
  • recorded reactions when either - interviewer not present - children show disappointment
  • interviewer present - most hide disappointment with 'half smile'
• sense of self and understanding others:

  deception

  lewis et al: deception in 3 yr old

  33 children

  • experimenter told child: i've put out a surprise toy. no peeking at it while I leave the room
  • videotaped child. 29 of 33 peeked!
  • experimenter reutrns. asks: did you peek?
  • 11 admitted peaking, 11 denied 7 did not answer
  • when experimenter returned, peekers smiled more than non-peekers
  • peekers showed most relaxed and smiling expressions
  • 3 yr olds can engage in deliberate verbal and facial deception
• false belief tests of children's theory of mind

  sally-ann task (location change)

  baron-cohen (1985)

  2 dolls , sally and anne

  sally puts a ball in the basket

  sally leaves

  anne hides the ball in the box

  sally returns

  'where will sally look for ball'

  4 yr olds: 'basket' - know sally believes ball is in basket

  3 yr olds: 'box'

  not understand sally has a belief different from their own
• false belief tests of childrens theory of mind

  smarties task - perner

  pencils inside a smarties box

  when asked what will your friend think is in the box

  4 yr olds: smarties

  3 yr olds: pencils

  gopnik and astington - 3 yr olds not understand that they once had a different belief from current one
• knowledge of mind before -4 years

  • empathy, deception and false belief studies reveal limitations in understanding of mind before age 4
• what do children < 4 years understand about the mind

  • 2 yrs: children use words referring to perception and emotion (e.g. want, see, look)
  • 3 yrs: words referring to cognition (e.g. know, think, remember)
• knowledge of mind before 4 yrars

  can children distinguish between mental representations and the physical world

  • shatz et al: examined 3 yr olds speech. concluded 3 year olds have ability to distinguish mental states from physical states, e.g. 'I thought it was an alligator, now i know its a crocodile'
• knowledge of the mind before 4 yrs

  can children distinguish between mental representations and the physical world

  • wellman and estes
  • showed picture stories to 3 yr olds
  • 2 characters: one has a biscuit, the other is thinking about a biscuit
  • asked: which of the biscuits can be touched? which can be seen by the character which can be seen by another character?
  • 3/4 of 3yr olds responses indicated they can distinguish between mental and physical states
• knowledge of mind before -4 yrs

  
  

  children begin to understand the relationship between seeing and knowing around age 2 yrs

  Lempers et al

  • asked 2 yr olds to show another person a picture glued inside a box
  • children oriented the box so it was visible for the other person
  • also, understood that people cannot see picture if eyes are covered
  • by 3 yrs, realise if they hide an object, other people cannot see it
• knowledge of mind before -4 yrs children begin to understand the relationship between seeing and knowing around age 2 yrs

  lempers et al

  asked 2 yr olds to show another person a picture glued inside a box

  children oriented the box so it was visible for other person

  also, understood that people cannot see pictures if eyes are covered

  by 3 years, realise if they hide an object, other people cannot see it
• knowledge of mind before -4 yrs children begin to understand the relationship between seeing and knowing around age 2 yrs

  masangkay et al

  • child shown double-sided picture card (cat/dog)
  • card placed so child and experimenter see opposite sides of card
  • asked child what they/ experimenter can see
  • 3 yr olds respond correctly
• can children understand the appearance reality distinction ?

  • children must learn how physical states relate to mental states, but also how mental states relate to physical states: looks can be deceiving
  • flavell, flavell and green
  • 3,4,5 yr olds given deceptive objects (sponges painted like rocks)
  • encourages them to play with objects
  • asked what they look like, what they 'really, really' are
  • 4 and 5 yr olds answered correctly
  • 3 yr olds said objects look like rocks and they are rocks
  • suggests 4-5 yr olds, can simultaneously represent an object in terms of its appearance + what it is
• when is theory of mind achieved

  • most children succeed on false belief tasks around 4-5 yrs, but several factors affect performance :
  • wording of the task
  • language skills
• when is theory of mind achieved

  • most children succeed on false belief tasks around 4-5 yrs, but several factors affect performance :
  • wording of the task: 'lewis and osborne changed wording on smarties task to: 'what will your friend think is in the box before she opens the lid?' some 3 year olds now succeeded
• when is theory of mind achieved

  • most children succeed on false belief tasks around 4-5 yrs, but several factors affect performance :
  • language skills
  • jenkins and astington found children with delayed language skills are delayed in false belief task
  • woolfe et al found some deaf children are delayed in false belief test
• when is theory of mind achieved?

  • type of social interaction
  • lewis et al (1996)
  • studied families in cyprus and crete
  • measured children's performance on false belief task
  • collected data on children's relationships
  • found children who succeed on false belief task tended to:

  1. interact more with adults
  2. have more older friends and siblings

  suggested interaction with older people may allow children to develop theory of mind skills at a younger age
• when is theory of mind achieved:

  • type of social interaction

  brown et al

  • examined conversations of children around 4 yrs
  • talked most about thoughts and beliefs with friends, not mother
  • found talking about thoughts and beliefs correlates with success on false belief task
• knowledge of mind after 4 years

  what do children older than 4 understand about the mind?

  4 year olds understand others beliefs are not always true or same as own. major achievement, but theory of mind skills are not fully developed
• knowledge of mind after 4 years

  • further development: 2nd order belief
  • sally-ann & smarties tasks assess first-order beliefs:
  • "I believe that person A believes X'
  • "I think that ann thinks that sally things her ball is in the basket"

  second order beliefs:

  "I believe that person A believes that person B believes X"

  "I think that Ann thinks that sally thinks her ball is in the basket
• knowledge of mind after 4 yrs

  2nd order beliefs:

  perner and wimmer - examined performance on a second-order belief task. children only succeeded around age 6 years
• knowledge of mind after 4 years:

  2) ability to plant false beliefs: deception

  perskin (1992): sticker experiment

  • 3,4 and 5 yr olds shown 4 stickers, told: can have favourite, but 2 puppets will choose first:
  • puppet 1: nice, never take child's favourite.
  • puppet 2: mean, will.
  • 5 year old lied to mean puppet, 3&4 yr olds told truth so lost sticker

  repeated 4 more times:

  • 5 year olds still lied, half of 4 year olds learnt to lie
  • 3yr olds did not learn to lie despite sadness and frustration

  suggests younger children not able to generate false belief in another oerspon
• different approaches to theory of mind development

  1. importance of reasoning

  harris emphasises understanding of own emotions and projecting them onto others is basis for theory of mind

  • projecting emotions onto others allows child to hypothesis about reasons for those emotions (i.e. beliefs and desires): simulation
  • simulation involves reasoning about situations that do not exist (called counterfactual reasoning)
  • suggests the possibility that young children's failure in false belief tasks may be due to limitations in reasoning abilities
• different approaches to theory of mind development

  1. importance of reasoning

  riggs et al

  read story to 3 & 4 yr olds

  maxi & his mum put chocolate in the cupboard. maxi goes to school. mother uses some chocolate to make cake. puts remainder in frige. maxi comes home

  asked either:

  1. where does maxi think the chocolate is?
  2. if mum had not made a cake, where would the chocolate be?

  both require hypothetical reasoning

  approx. all children answered consistently (whether right or wrong)

  • suggests failure on f.b. tasks is due to reasoning limitation, not failure to understand mental representations
• different approaches to theory of mind development

  2) importance of representational ability

  wellman emphasis development of representational ability as an important factor

  • 2 yr olds: not able to form representation of others beliefs
  • 3 yr olds: able to represent others' beliefs, but only as a true copy of the world (not realise beliefs are interpretations of world)
  • 4 yr olds: realise beliefs represent an interpretation of the world, not a true copy of the world: i.e. achieve knowledge about representations ('metarepresentation' perner)