findings and conclusions

• theory of mind is the understanding that someone else has a seperate mind to our own and therefore does not see or experience the world as we do
• in order to develop theory of mind a child must first develop intentional reasoning - a precursor to theory of mind
• Mletzoff provided evidence to show that 18 month old children have some understanding of others' mental states
• in both the condition where adults appeared to struglle putting beads in a jar(experimental) and condition where the adults placed beads in a jar successfully(control) toddlers dropped no more beads than the control condition
• Meltzoff showed that infants have an awareness of someone elses mental state but this is not a proper theory of mind.
• theory of mind begins with attributing a set of mental states to others but is not complete without understanding someone else has a seperate mind to our own and does not see the world in the same way we do #
• theory of mind can be tested using false belief tasks. Having false beliefs is understanding that others can have a different view of the world which is inaccurate and different to ours
• Wimmer and Perner developed a false belief task where they were asked where Maxi - a child whoo left his chocolate in a blue cupboard but his mum moved it to a green cupboard - would look for his chcoolate
• most 3 year olds failed the false beleif task, but most 4 year olds passed it. But by the age of 6 all children passed it. Thus theory of mind develops with age between 3-6 years old. By the age of 6 all children have theory of mind
• Autism is a developmental disorder where problems with social interactions and communication skills are present
• Autism is characterised by specific cognitive impairment known as mind blindness - inability to reduce emotional states and perspectives of others which leads to problems with social cognition - Autism research shows TOM is responsible for social cognition deficiencys
• Simon Baron-Cohen used a similar false belief task to test the development of Tom in children diagnosed with ASD. 2o high functioning children with ASD were compared to a group of 14 children with Down's syndrome. Results showed that 85% of the Downs syndrome group correctly indentified where Sally - Anne would look compared to 20% of the ASD group
• Children with ASD have an underdeveloped theory of mind compared to children with Downs syndrome. Baron-Cohen argued the reason why they have difficulty with social cognition is the lack of thoery of mind . Thus theory of mind has a crucial role in social cognition