The Development of Theory of Mind

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The Development of Theory of Mind

• Outline
• What is Theory of Mind?
• Issues in the Development of Theory of Mind
• Cognitive Deficit (Stage) Theory of Theory of
  Mind
• Support for Cognitive Deficit Theory
• Criticism of Cognitive Deficit Theory
• Alternative Theories
• Theory of Mind in People with Autism

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What is Theory of Mind (ToM)?

• Peoples common sense knowledge about others and
  their own mental activities (Lee, 2000).
• Allows us to read anothers mind
• i.e. guess what they are feeling, perceiving,
  desiring, intending, knowing and believing
• e.g . John gave Rebecca a box with Candies
  written on it. Unknown to Rebecca, John had
  removed the candies and replaced them with a
  pencil
• What does Rebecca think is in the box?

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Development of Theory of Mind

• 2 issues
• When and why do children develop understanding of
  the minds of others?
• When and why do children develop the ability to
  distinguish appearance from reality?

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The Traditional View Cognitive Deficit Theory

• Dominated ToM research for many years
• Based on Piagets idea of egocentrism
• ToM is not acquired until there is a radical
  shift in our thought processes (Perner, 1991)
• ToM illustrates a stage-like qualitative change
  in thought processes.
• Children under 4 years of age do not have a
  Theory of Mind

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Support for Cognitive Deficit Theory (1)

• False Belief Tasks
• 1. The Unexpected Transfer Test (e.g. the Sally-
  Ann Task, Frith, 1989).
• 2. The Deceptive Box Test (e.g. Perner, Leekam
  Wimmer, 1987).
• Appearance-Reality Tasks
• The rock/sponge experiment (e.g. Flavell, Flavell
  Green, 1983).

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Support for Cognitive Deficit Theory (2)

• Cross-cultural Studies
• e.g. Avis Harris (1991)
• Baka tribe of pygmies
• unexpected transfer test
• those under 5 years of age failed
• those over 5 years of age passed

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Criticisms of Cognitive Deficit Theory (1)

• 1. Over-reliance on False Belief Tasks
• False Belief Tasks are flawed
• Children misunderstand the question (e.g. Lewis
  Osborne 1990)
• Difficulty understanding and integrating key
  elements of the story, (e.g. Lewis, Freeman,
  Hagestadt Douglas, 1994)
• Children do not know that seeing is believing
  (e.g. Wimmer, Hogrefe, Sodian, B. 1988).

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Criticisms of Cognitive Deficit Theory (2)

• 2. Naturalistic studies suggest young children
  are good at ToM type tasks
• Childrens ToM develops slowly over a number of
  years
• Dunn, 1988
• disputes, jokes, prosocial behaviour,
  cooperation, pretend play, conversations
• Chandler, 1988
• treasure hunt studies (young children know how to
  cheat!)

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Criticisms of Cognitive Deficit Theory (3)

• 3. Evidence of ToM failure in older children and
  adults
• Older children tricked (Steverson, 1996)
• Gurkhas vs British (Fischhoff, 1975)
• 4. Evidence of being deceived by reality in
  adults
• Circular disc task(Taylor Mitchell, 1996)

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New Theories of ToM

• Modularity Theory
• A ToM MODULE (Scholl Leslie, 1999)
• Bias towards paying attention to reality
  (Mitchell, 1997)
• Gradual build up of knowledge of the world
  (Chandler, 1988)

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ToM in People with Autism (1)

• What is autism?
• Difficult to define
• Characteristics of autism (National Autistic
  Society)
• difficulty with social relationships
• difficulty with verbal communication
• difficulty with non-verbal communication
• difficulty in the development of play and
  imagination
• resistance to change in routine.

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ToM in People with Autism (2)

• Characteristic of autism
• failure to develop ToM
• Seems restricted to autism (Baren-Cohen et al,
  1985)
• Theories of ToM must explain this

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Conclusion

• ToM develops throughout childhood
• Exactly when ToM develops is disputed
• Cognitive deficit theorists - age 4, sudden stage
  like change
• Others - earlier/later, gradual change
• Evidence theories must explain
• experiments on children and adults
• naturalistic data
• people with autism

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Learning Outcomes

• Critically compare and contrast different
  theories of ToM
• Critically evaluate the research conducted
• experiments on children and adults
• naturalistic data
• Critically discuss the role of ToM in autism