Theory of mind

• What is theory of mind?


  The ability to realise other people have a mind of their own
• What is some research into intentional reasoning in toddlers?


  Meltzoff (1988) - toddlers were shown adults placing beads in a jar. In one condition the adult struggled and in and other condition they did it easily

  The toddlers successfully put the beads in the jar in both conditions, showing they can copy intentions rather than actions
• At what age do children start to give the right answer in false belief tasks?

  6 years
• Who did the Sally-Anne study?

  Baron-Cohen
• What did the Sally-Anne study involve?


  Baron-Cohen asked children:

  • Sally has a black box and Anne has a brown box
  • Sally puts a marble in her box and goes for a walk
  • Anne takes the marble out of Sally’s box and puts it in her box
  • Where will Sally look for the marble when she comes back?
• What did Baron-Cohen find?


  Down syndrome children - 86% correct

  Neurotypicals - 85% correct

  ASD - 20% correct

  Therefore theory of mind is a separate ability
• What task is used to study ToM in older children and adults?

  The eyes task
• What does the eyes task involve?


  Reading emotions form pictures of eyes
• What do the eyes tasks show?

  Baron-Cohen - Ps with aspergers syndrome struggle with eyes task
• How does culture affect theory of mind?

  Liu et al (2004) - Chinese and US Ps had a similar sequence of development but at different ages
• What are the gender differences in FBTs?

  Lewis and Osbourne (1990) - women perform better in FBTs as they understand questions better
• How does family environment influence ToM ability?


  Ruffman et al. (1999) - children whose mothers encourage them to reflect on others feelings have more success on FBTs
• How do FBTs lack internal validity?

  Bloom and German (2000) - FBTs require other abilities such as memories. When given aids to recall ASD children do better
• Who said ToM starts sooner than once thought?

  Baillargeon
• Who says intention is separate from theory of mind?


  Carpenter (2001)
• What is a strength of ToM?

  Explains autism
• What is a criticism of the eyes task?

  Low internal validity