Theory of Mind PDF

Theory of Mind PSGY1013 – DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY DR SHUE L ING CHONG SHUE.LING@NOT TINGHAM.EDU.MY 1 Can you read my mind? 2 overview 1. What is a ‘Theory of Mind’? 2. How can we measure Theory of Mind? 3. When does Theory o...

Theory of Mind PSGY1013 – DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY DR SHUE L ING CHONG SHUE.LING@NOT TINGHAM.EDU.MY 1 Can you read my mind? 2 overview 1. What is a ‘Theory of Mind’? 2. How can we measure Theory of Mind? 3. When does Theory of Mind develop? 4. What influences Theory of Mind development? 3 Learning objectives By the end of this lecture, you should be able to: Understand what psychologists mean by ‘Theory of Mind’. Critically evaluate the methods used to study Theory of Mind. Use evidence to describe the developmental trajectory of Theory of Mind. 4 What is theory of mind? Theory of Mind is the ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others. Including: ◦ Thoughts ◦ Beliefs ◦ Intentions ◦ Desires ◦ Knowledge 5 Different examples of Theory of mind The content of other minds is unobservable so we use different strategies to understand them: We can track the beliefs of others based on their history. We can make mental state inferences about observable actions. We can take the perspective of someone else and see things from their point of view. 6 Why Is theory of mind useful? Core feature of social cognition: ◦ Predict future actions and behaviours. ◦ Reason about past behaviour. ◦ Communicate with others effectively. ◦ Feel empathy for another’s situation. ◦ Deceive others, and detect deception. ◦ Avoiding offense. ◦ Gift purchasing. ◦ Many more…. 7 Uniquely Human? Apes Non-human primates: ◦ Assess the visual perspective of others. ◦ Use this knowledge to decide which food to compete for. ◦ Will base decisions on their dominance in group. (Hare, Call, Agnetta & Tomasello, 2000) 8  Uniquely Human? Birds Western Scrub-Jays: ◦ Cache food. ◦ Pilfer other’s caches. ◦ Re-cache based on whether they were observed. (Dally, Emery & Clayton, 2006) 9 Uniquely Human? However: ◦ Theory of Mind in animals is controversial. ◦ Perspective-taking abilities heavily studied. ◦ Is it as fully developed as it is in humans? ◦ Conflicting beliefs, desires, intentions. ◦ How can this be studied effectively? (review by Krupenye & Call, 2019) 10  How do we devise a How Can we test that is capable of measure theory of mind? revealing something profound, that is simple enough to present to a young child? 11 Beliefs Understanding others’ minds (according to Dennet, 1978) ◦ People hold beliefs. ◦ Their beliefs predict their behaviour. How can we tell whether someone has a ToM? o False belief tasks 12 False belief task: Sally-Anne task False belief task Tests whether child can represent what another person believes in contrast to their own beliefs or reality Why is this more useful than a True Belief task? 13 False belief task: Unexpected transfer task (Wimmer & Perner, 1983) While Maxi is out playing, his Mum takes the chocolate Redrawn after Wimmer & Perner, from the cupboard and 1983 grates some of it into a cake. % of Correct Responses 120 Maxi is returning from 100 play, feeling hungry. 80 He wants his 60 40 chocolate. 20 0 Test- Where will Maxi look for his chocolate? 4-5 6-7 8-9 years years years Control- Where did Maxi put his chocolate? Control-Where did Mum put his chocolate? 14 False belief task: Unexpected transfer task (Wimmer & Perner, 1983) Tests understanding the mind (ToM) < 5 yos fail to understand that ◦ others may hold false belief ◦ own mind might differ from other’s mind Insight required around 5 year ◦ Understand that we do not always act on reality, but on our view of the reality ◦ distinguish between own and other beliefs 15  False belief task: Deceptive box test Perner et al. (1987) What is inside this tube? Show child content (pencil) What will your friend say is inside? 16 False belief task: Deceptive box test Gopnik and Astington (1988) ‘When you first saw this tube, before we opened it, what did you think was inside?’ 17  False belief tasks & Theory of Mind 3-year-old children usually fail False belief tasks 4-year-old children usually pass False belief tasks  Traditionally taken as evidence that around this time children ‘acquire’ a theory of mind  Radical conceptual shift around 4 years Is this correct, or are younger children underestimated because of task properties? 18  Explicit Tasks: children are asked to explicitly report the contents explicit or of another mind. Implicit tasks Implicit Tasks: children imply that they are aware of other minds through their behaviour. 19 Unexpected preference test The 14-mo-olds responded egocentrically, offering whichever food they themselves preferred. However, 18-mo-olds correctly inferred that the experimenter wanted the food associated with her prior positive affect. They were able to make this inference even Findings: when the experimenter's desires differed 18-month-olds could from their own. understand the experimenter 18-mo-olds are able to engage in some form had a different preference. 14- of desire reasoning. month-olds could not. Repacholi & Gopnik (1997) 20 Understanding deception? Actively trying to deceive another person implies understanding of other minds… 21  Deception Three-year-old children told convincing lies about doing something that was forbidden (Lewis et al, 1989). Two to five-year-old children destroyed tell-tale evidence to prevent a competitor finding hidden treasure (Chandler et al, 1989). Three to four-year-old children changed the content of a familiar container in order to trick the experimenter (Sullivan & Winner, 1993). 22 When does theory of mind develop? 23 A Rapid Conceptual Shift? Early studies seem to provide converging evidence that children rapidly acquire a concept of ‘belief’ around their fourth birthday. If this is the case, we should predict: ◦ Consistency across studies / measures. ◦ Perfect performance in older children / adults. ◦ Universal ’flip’ in performance. 24 Unexpected transfer TEST- revisited Cognitive demands limit a young child’s ability to pass. Two changes helped 3-year-olds performance: ◦ The protagonist did not leave the room (just turned around).- keep track of protagonist perspective ◦ Children asked to enact the search phase. Findings: Success increased from 22% to 80% Rubio-Fernandez & Geurts (2013) 25 Deceptive box test- Mailing procedure Mitchell & lacohee (1991) “When you mailed your picture what did you think was inside the box?” Findings: 60% of 3-year-old children answered correctly (compared to 20% of correct answers in the standard version of the task). 26 Continuous or stage-like? Early theorists argued for radical conceptual change in Theory of Mind development at approx. 4 years (based on false-belief tasks). Adjustments to tasks / methods could improve performance in younger children. A meta-analysis of 174 different studies showed performance flips from below- chance to above-chance at age 4 (Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001) 27 What influences theory of mind development? 28 Culture ◦ The rate of development is similar across cultures, but the timing was different. ◦ Universal stage-like development but different onset times. (Liu et al, 2008) 29 Parenting ◦ Single parenting, parental distress and poor economic situations associated with poorer ToM performance (Cole & Mitchell, 1998) ◦ Mothers who explained psychological causality to their children associated with better ToM performance (Dunn et al, 1991) 30 Family size ◦ Children with more siblings (especially older) are developmentally advantaged in passing a test of false belief compared with singletons (Perner et al, 1994) ◦ Children living in extended families are developmentally advantaged (Lewis et al, 1996) 31 Summary Theory of Mind involves understanding that other people have different thoughts, beliefs, intentions and desires to our own. There are different ways of measuring ToM – each tells us something a bit different about development. It is possible that there is a rapid conceptual shift in ToM development at age 4 but there is some evidence that this might be an artifact of the methods used to test children. Tasks which use implicit measures of ToM indicate early development (i.e. preference test, deception). Environmental factors can influence ToM development. 32