Lecture 12
Introduction and Definitions
Infancy: Early social competence
Children: Development of ToM
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Heider & Simmel, 1944
Theory of Mind: an understanding that people’s behaviour is motivated by internal mental states
Folk Psychology
Why do we need ToM?
- Reason 1-
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Reason 2-
Infancy- Categorization
- Infants tend to categorize ____________ as different from ____________________
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Infants are sensitive to __________________ & _________________
Infants Interpretation of Action
Johnson et al. (1998)
- 12 month old infants
- Three conditions:
Meltzoff (1995)
- 18 month old infants
Recognizing Goals
Woodward 1998
New Object, Old Location
New Object, Old Location
Old Object, New Location
Old Object, New Location
Gergely et al, 1995
Kuhlmeier et al
Exp 1
Exp 2
What else is the infant doing before 2 years of age?
1. Interpreting new behaviour in terms of past behaviour.
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Kuhlmeier, Wynn, & Bloom, 2003
2. Emotion understanding
3. Desire understanding
Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997
- 18 month old infants
- Broccoli & Goldfish
Theory of Mind- Childhood
Representation
Meta-Representation
Tests for Theory of Mind
-Smarties Task-
False Belief Task ‘Sally-Anne Task’
Why are False Belief tasks difficult?
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Executive Functioning
Autism
DSM-IV definition:
1. Impaired social interaction
2. Impaired communication
3. Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behaviours, interests, and activities
Typically Developing Adolescent:
“What happened was that the larger triangle- which was like a bigger kid or a bully- and he had
isolated himself from everything else until two new kids came along and the little one was a bit more
shy, scared, and the smaller triangle more like stood up for himself and protected the little one. The big
triangle got jealous of them, came out, and started to pick on the smaller triangle. The little triangle got
upset and said like “What’s up? Why are you doing this?”
Adolescent with autism:
“The big triangle went into the rectangle. There were a small triangle and a circle. The big
triangle went out. The shapes bounce off each other. The small circle went inside the rectangle. The
big triangle was in the box with the circle. The small triangle and the circle went around each other a
few times. They were kind of oscillating around each other, maybe because of a magnetic field. After
that, they go off the screen. The big triangle turned like a star- like a Star of David- and broke the
rectangle.