AO1
- the ability that each of us has to ‘MIND-READ’ or to have a PERSONAL THEORY of what other people KNOW or THINKING or FEELING
- occurs around THREE YRS OLD when they start PRETEND PLAY when one object can be used to SYMBOLISE ANOTHER e.g. horse as a broom
INTENTIONAL REASONING IN TODDLERS
- MELTZOFF: toddlers have an UNDERSTANDING of ADULT INTENTIONS when carrying out SIMPLE ACTIONS
18 MONTH CHILDREN OBSERVED ADULTS place BEADS into a JAR –
EXPERIMENTAL: adults appeared to STRUGGLE and DROPPED THE BEADS
CONTROL: adults placed the beads into the jar SUCCESSFULLY
= BOTH the sets of children DROPPED THE BEADS INTO THE JAR so they all knew what THE ADULT INTENDED TO DO
FALSE BELIEF TASKS
- To test the CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING that people can believe SOMETHING THAT IS NOT TRUE
- WIMMER + PERNER: told 3-4 yr olds a story where MAXI left his CHOCOLATE in the BLUE CUPBOARD and then went to the PLAYGROUND THEN MAXI’S MOTHER uses some of the CHOCOLATE and put it in the GREEN CUPBOARD à children were ASKED WHICH CUPBOARD MAXI WOULD LOOK IN = 3 YR OLDS – GREEN / 4 YR OLDS – BLUE = MORE ADVANCED TOM AT 4 YRS
SALLY-ANNE STUDIES
- BARON-COHEN ET AL: used a similar false belief task – told a STORY of TWO DOLLS (SALLY + ANNE), SALLY places a MARBLE in HER BASKET and when SALLY WASN’T LOOKING, ANNE moved the marble to HER BOX
asked where sally would look – ANNE’S BOX (NO THEORY OF THE MIND) but with theory of the mind, THE CHILD WOULD KNOW THE TWO THINK DIFFERENTLY
had 20 HIGH-FUNCTIONING children with AUTISM + 14 with DOWN’S SYNDROME + 27 WITHOUT A DIAGNOSIS = 85% of the CONTROL GROUP was correct BUT only 4 (20%) of those with AUTISM were correct
TESTING OLDER CHILDREN AND ADULTS
- ASPERGER SYNDROME- type of ASD characterised with lack of EMPATHY, SOCIAL COMMUNICATION AND IMAGINATION but had NORMAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
- The EYE TASKS involves READING COMPLEX EMOTIONS in PICTURES of FACES just showing a SMALL AREA around the EYES – those WITH ASD STRUGGLED
= MIND-BLINDNESS: children with autism LACK in the TEORY OF THE MIND and find OTHER PEOPLE’S BEHAVIOUR CONFUSING or UNPREDICTABLE, NOT able to represent THEMSELVES IN OTHER’S INNER MENTAL STATE
AO3
- RESEARCH TO SUPPORT TOM: BARON-COHEN: compared ADULTS with AUTISM/ASPERGERS, those with TOURETTES and ‘NORMAL’ adults – given 25 PHOTOGRAPHS of EYES COUPLED with TWO WORDS which described a MENTAL STATE, with only ONE BEING CORRECT e.g. happy or sad = those with AUTISM had DISTINCT PROBLEMS with the TASKS compared to the others
- FALSE BELIEF STUDIES CAN BE CRITISED: rely HEAVILY on LANGUAGE SKILLS – as a child gets OLDER their LANGAUAGE SKILLS DEVELOP so the ability to complete the task is based on the fact they UNDERSTAND THE QUESTIONS better and NOTHING to do with DEVELOPING TOM = QUESTIONS THE VALIDITY
- HARD TO DISTINGUISH TOM FROM PERSPECTIVE-TAKING: SELMAN’S WORK on COGNITIE ABILITY to see things from ANOTHER’S POV is CLOSELY RELATED to TOM e.g. the response of the SALLY-ANNE study can be explained through not being able to take SALLY’S PERSPECTIVE AND both the TOM TASKS and research into PERSPECTIVE-TAKING look into AUTISTIC CHLDREN à TOM looks at PERSPECTIVE-TAKING rather than MIND-BLINDNESS = LACKS VALIDITY
- IGNORES THE EXCEPTIONAL ABILITIES OF LOTS OF AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS: AUTISTIC SAVANTS show EXCEPTIONAL TALENTS in MATHS, ART AND MUSIC and NOT IMPAIRED in these areas but TOM concentrates on the IMPAIRMENT OF COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING not the ENHANCEMENTS = LIMITED EXPLANATION OF AUTISM