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Theory of Mind (ToM)
AQA A-level psychology cognition & development year 13
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Theory of Mind (ToM) | Personal belief of the thoughts & feelings of other: “mind reading” |
| When ToM develops | Around 3-4 years unless child is autistic in which case they may permanently have a deficit in ToM: “mind blindness theory” |
| Meltzoff (1988): beads in jar - procedure | 18-month-olds watch adults placing beads in jar. Control is them doing this successfully. Experimental condition is them struggling & dropping beads. Toddlers were then required to place beads in jar |
| Meltzoff (1988): beads in jar - findings | In both conditions, toddlers successfully placed beads in jar showing that they imitated the intentions of the adult rather than the actions, demonstrating basic ToM |
| Wimmer & Perner (1983): story of chocolate - procedure | 3-4-year-olds told story of Maxi leaving chocolate in blue cupboard in kitchen, mum took some for cooking & out chocolate in green cupboard. Maxi comes back. Children are asked where he’d look for the chocolate |
| Wimmer & Perner (1983): story of chocolate - findings | Most 3-year-olds said he’d look in the green cupboard (where mum left it) & most 4-year-olds said he’d look in the blue cupboard (where Maxi left it). This suggests ToM develops between the ages of 3 & 4 |
| Baron-Cohen et al. (1985): Sally-Anne task - procedure | Control of Down’s syndrome children & children without diagnosis compared to experimental of autistic children told story of Sally putting marble in her basket, leaving, Anne puts it in her box, Sally come back, children asked where Sally looked |
| Baron-Cohen et al. (1985): Sally-Anne task - findings | 85% of control groups correctly identified that Sally would search her own basket first whereas only 20% of experimental group said this |
| Baron-Cohen et al. (1997): The Eyes task | Older autistic children & adults succeed in false belief tasks (e.g., Sally-Anne) so are made to judge expressed emotion in pair of isolated eyes. Autistic individuals don’t do as well on this task as individuals without diagnosis |
| Strength of ToM explanation | Since Baron-Cohen et al. provides evidence that autism is correlated with ToM deficiencies which may inform future treatments for autistic people (however, this is correlation not causation |
| Limitation of ToM explanation (false belief task) | Bloom & German (2000) ran Sally-Anne task with diagram & found higher results suggesting that other cognitive abilities like visual STM play a role in false belief tasks & this is less developed in younger children giving less internal validity |
| Limitation of ToM explanation (The Eyes task) | Judging emotion from a static pair of eyes isn’t comparable to real-life experiences as we judge emotions based on a whole moving face as well as body language giving this study less external validity |
| Mirror neurones (MN) | Brain cells commonly found in the motor cortex which fire the same way when performing an action & witnessing others perform the same action |
| Rizzolatti: monkeys grabbing peanuts | Placed electrodes in motor cortex of monkeys, found that the same neurones fired when reaching for a peanut & watching a researcher reaching for a peanut which lead him to discover mirror neurones |
| Goldman: role of mirror neurones in social cognition | Subconsciously imitating the cognitive processes of others allow us to understand their intentions which allows us to have ToM & perspective taking |
| Ramachandran (2011): role of mirror neurones in evolution | Learning new skills in the span of a generation or facilitating complex social interactions requires an understanding of the perspective, intentions, & emotions of others which requires mirror neurones |
| Ramachandran & Oberman (2006): role of mirror neurones in autism | EEG brainwaves of ASD & non-ASD people while they performed a hand action & compared it to watching a video of the same action. In non-ASD people the waves were the same but in ASD people they were different. Ramachdran coined the “broken mirror” theory |
| Disadvantage of mirror neurone studies (Hikock) | Unethical to experiment on human brains in such an invasive way, therefore Hickok (2009) said there’s a possibility MN might not even exist in humans |
| Advantage of mirror neurone theory (Haker et al. & Hadjikhani) | Backed by research: Haker et al. found areas involved in social cognition are rich in MN (e.g., in contagious yawning); Hadjikhani (2013) found lower activity in areas relating to perspective-taking in people with ASD |
| Disadvantage of relationship between mirror neurones & ASD (Hamilton) | Reviewed 25 studies & found highly inconsistent evidence linking ASD to MN activity |
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