mindreading
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Theory of MindTRANSCRIPT
Theory of mind
Historical, evolutionary, and developmental perspectives.
Outline
• What is a Theory of Mind (ToM)?
• History of ToM research
• False-belief
• ToM Mechanisms.
• Role of ToM in Autism
From Whiten (1994, in Lewis & Mitchell)
Conceptual issues.
• What is a theory of mind?
• How does it influence social perception?
A theory of physics
• Predicting the behaviour of objects.
• Use certain concepts like force, mass, friction, etc.
• Theory organizes these concepts.
• F=MA (Newton’s 1st law).
• Useful in making predictions.
Is physics useful for predicting behaviour?
• Not really.
• Physical theory poorly suited for the task.
• Autonomous entities under self-directed movement.
• External causes not always apparent.
• Solution?
Dennet
• Take the intentional stance.
• Adopt a theory of mind.
• Concepts include:
• Knowledge, beliefs, desires, intentions.
A definition.
• To have a theory of mind is to use mentalistic constructs in order to predict and explain the behaviour of other individuals.
• Allows us to “read the minds of others”
Prediction and Explanation
• Prediction: Knowing someone’s desires makes it easy to anticipate her emotions.
• Explanation: Knowing someone’s intentions is central to properly interpreting his behaviour.
• Example: Legal distinctions– Premeditated– Unpremeditated
TOMM• Function: allows the representation of representations
– {Agent – Attitude – Proposition} = M-Representations– Propositions:
• The marble is in the basket• It is raining• I saw the car accident• You want an A in this class
– M-representation:• Mary – thinks – the marble is in the basket. • John – believes – it is raining.• Amy – remembers – I saw the car accident. • I – believe – you want to do well in this class.
Properties of M-representations
• Referential opacity:– proposition can be false but the M-Representation can still be true.
• Example:– John – believes – it is raining.– It may not be raining, so proposition is false– But John can still believe that it is – so M-
representation can be true.– People can have FALSE BELIEFS!!!!
Examples• This can be true:
– Snow White thought the woman selling apples was a kind person.
• While this may be false:– Snow White thought her wicked stepmother
was a kind person.
• Second statement is false if snow white did not know her step mother was the one selling apples
Theory of Mind Mechanism (TOMM)
• Need TOMM for the full range of mental states.• Pretending, thinking, knowing, believing,
imagining, dreaming, guessing, deceiving, etc.• Having a “theory of mind” depends on being
aware that there are mental states (thoughts, beliefs, desires) which people have about something, and that other people have minds with different contents to our own.
Evidence for TOMM
• Pretend play in young children around 18-24 mths.
• Children from 3-4 yrs of age start showing evidence of “knowing”.
• Mommy believes that the banana is a telephone
• Knowledge about objects in the world– Bananas and Telephones– Know how to treat them (eating and
dialing)
• Removed from reality – doesn’t have to be true of the world.
• Pretend play– An empty cup is filled– A banana is a telephone
History of TOM research
• Interest in TOM grew out of comparative psychology.
• Researchers interested in the development and evolution of social intelligence.
What does Charlie want?
Premack and Woodruff
• Can chimpanzees understand the desires of a human being?
• Problem-solving task with Sarah, a 14-year-old Chimpanzee
Video: Problem situation
Test
• Sarah shown 2 pictures
• (1) Shows effective solution to the problem.
Test
• Sarah shown 2 pictures
• (1) Shows effective solution to the problem.
• (2) Shows ineffective solution to the problem.
Results and conclusions
• Sarah picked the picture that featured the effective solution.
• Chimps attribute mental states (in this case, desires) to humans.
Criticism
• Dennett: No.
• Perhaps chimps attributing their own desires to human.
• Need to show that one can understand someone else’s mental states, not just attribute one’s own mental states to others.
Wimmer and Perner
• False-Belief task
• Can a child understand that someone else can have a different belief (a false belief) despite the child possessing the correct belief?
• Allows researchers to separate the beliefs of the research participant from the beliefs of the model.
False belief task: Sally & Anne
The False-Belief Task
The False-Belief Task
The False-Belief Task
The False-Belief Task
The False-Belief Task
The False-Belief Task
The False-Belief Task
The False-Belief Task
Where will bunny look for her toy?
The False-Belief Task
Where will bunny look for her toy?
The False-Belief Task
•To succeed, child must separate their own beliefs (the true belief) and attribute a false-belief to Bunny.
Where will bunny look for her toy?
The False-Belief Task
•To succeed, child must separate their own beliefs (the true belief) and attribute a false-belief to Bunny.
4-year-olds
Where will bunny look for her toy?
The False-Belief Task
•To succeed, child must separate their own beliefs (the true belief) and attribute a false-belief to Bunny.
4-year-olds
3-year-olds
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties– 3-year-olds have difficulty coordinating
two different representations of a single situation
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Smarties task
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Smarties task
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Smarties task
E: What’s do you think is in the box?C: Smarties
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Smarties task
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Smarties task
E: What’s really in the box?C: Ribbons.E: What did you think was in the box before?
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Smarties taskE: What’s really in the box?C: Ribbons.E: What did you think was in the box before?-- 3-year-olds say ribbons
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Appearance-Reality Task
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Appearance-Reality Task
E: What does it look like?C: A rock
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Appearance-Reality Task
Child discovers the rockis actually a sponge
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Appearance-Reality Task
E: What is it really?C: A spongeE: What does it look like?
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Appearance-Reality Task
E: What is it really?C: A spongeE: What does it look like?
3-year-olds say it looks like a sponge
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties– Performance in a variety of tasks suggest that
3-year-olds have difficulty coordinating two different representations of a single situation
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
• (2) Problems of response control
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
• (2) Problems of response control– 3-year-olds possess the requisite knowledge
but fail to act appropriately
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
• (2) Problems of response control
Looking-time version of false-belief task: Where will Bunny look for her toy?
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
• (2) Problems of response control
Looking-time version of false-belief task: Where will Bunny look for her toy?
3-year-olds look longer to the correct location even though theygive the wrong answer.
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
• (2) Problems of response control
Pointing versus spoken responses: Perhaps children find it difficult to inhibit pointing to where the toy actually is.
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
• (2) Problems of response control
Pointing versus spoken responses: Perhaps children find it difficult to inhibit pointing to where the toy actually is.
Carlson, Moses, & Hix: Children perform better when givingspoken rather than pointing responses
False-belief task
• Why do 3-year-olds fail the task?
• (1) Age-related conceptual difficulties
Other possibilities?
• (2) Problems of response control
– Some evidence that children know the right answer but have difficulty inhibiting incorrect responses
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
• 3 contrasting perspectives
(1) Nativist
(2) Cognitive-developmental
(3) Social interactionist
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(1) Nativist– ToM a specific cognitive domain– Baron-Cohen: Supported by 4 basic
modules– Intentionality detector, eye-direction
detector, shared-attention mechanism, and a theory of mind module
– Evidence?
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(1) Nativist– ToM a specific cognitive domain– Baron-Cohen: Supported by 4 basic
modules– Intentionality detector, eye-direction
detector, shared-attention mechanism, and a theory of mind module
– Evidence? Autism & Cross-cultural
IDDesires and goals
“Mary wants the apple”
EDDEyes can see things
“Mary sees the apple”
SAMInfers desires and goals based on eye direction
“I see that Mary wants the apple”
Theory of Mind
TOMMAllows the full range of mental states
“I think you believe this topic is interesting”
Adaptive Problem
Cognitive Programs
Neurophysiology
Predicting and explaining behavior
ID, EDD, SAM, TOMM
STS-Amygdala-OFC
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(2) Cognitive-developmental– ToM dependent on the development of general
cognitive mechanisms– Flexibility: performance in false-belief tasks
correlates with performance on the DCCS– Inhibition: gains in false-belief related to
improvements in behavioural control– Working memory: allows one to hold two
representations in mind simultaneously
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(3) Social interactionist– Interactions with caregivers, siblings, and
peers facilitates development of ToM– Evidence?
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(3) Social interactionist– Interactions with caregivers, siblings, and
peers facilitates development of ToM– Evidence?
Children from larger families do better on false-belief tasks.This is especially true for children with poor languageskills (Jenkins & Astington, 1996).
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(3) Social interactionist– Interactions with caregivers, siblings, and
peers facilitates development of ToM– Evidence?
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(3) Social interactionist– Interactions with caregivers, siblings, and
peers facilitates development of ToM– Evidence?
However, it is only having older siblings that helps (Ruffman, 1998).Having older sibs stimulates pretend play and facilitates the development of counter-factual reasoning.
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(3) Social interactionist– Interactions with caregivers, siblings, and
peers facilitates development of ToM– Evidence?
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(3) Social interactionist– Interactions with caregivers, siblings, and
peers facilitates development of ToM– Evidence?
Adults also effective tutors.Lewis administered ToM tests to a group of 3 & 4 yo’s.Best predictor of success # of adults the child interacted with every day. How does adult interaction help?
What leads to the development of a theory of mind?
(3) Social interactionist– Interactions with caregivers, siblings, and
peers facilitates development of ToM– Evidence?– Mother-child feeling-state talk during
discipline and story-reading associated with later ToM
What would your world be like without a Theory of Mind?
• How would you explain behavior?
• Imagine not understanding sarcasm, humor, irony, beliefs, deceptions…
• Imagine living in a world in which you could only understand behavior in terms of temporal and physical contingencies.
• What would this be like?
Autism• Autism:
– Affects 4-15 children per 10,000. – Abnormal social and communication skills
• Diagnostic features of Autism:– Lack of normal social awareness and
socially appropriate behavior– Lack of communication skills, verbal and
non-verbal– Lack of pretend play
• Kanner (1943) first identified syndrome:• “He seems almost to draw into his shell and live within
himself…”• “When taken into a room, he completely disregarded the
people and instantly when for objects…”• “When a hand was held out to him so that he could no
possibly ignore it, he played with it briefly as if it were a detached object…”
• “He did not respond to being called, and did not look at his mother when she spoke to him…”
• “He never looked up at people’s faces. When he had any dealings with persons at all, he treated them, or rather parts of them, as if they were objects.”
What systems are impaired?
• ID?
• EDD?
• SAM?
• TOMM?
Autism = MindblindnessImpairments of Theory of Mind
• Intentionality Detector (ID) impairments?– Can individuals with autism understand behavior in
terms of desires and goals?• “She wants ice cream”• “He is going to go swimming”
– Can they distinguish animate from inanimate?– Can they understand that desires cause emotions?
• Getting attaining a goal or desire makes you happy• Not getting a goal or desire makes you sad
– Verdict: ID IS NOT IMPAIRED
MindblindnessImpairments of Theory of Mind
• Eye Direction Detector (EDD) impairments?– Do they know what it means to see?
• Use the word “see” spontaneously in speech
– Can they tell whether someone is looking at them or away from them?
– Can they work out where someone else is looking?
Verdict: EDD IS NOT IMPAIRED
MindblindnessImpairments of Theory of Mind
• Shared Attention Mechanism (SAM) impairments?
• Allows for individual to verify that self and another are attending to the same object or event.
– Do they engage in joint attention behavior? NO– Do they monitor gaze? NO– Do they show pointing or showing gestures? NO
• “Look what I have!” (36 months)
– Do they infer that seeing indicates desires? (Charlie Task)
MindblindnessImpairments of Theory of Mind
• SAM impairments?– Blind children understand
what it means “to see”– Individuals with autism
often speak to loudly or too softly or with little inflection.
– Lack concept of other as an interested listener
Verdict: SAM IS IMPAIRED
MindblindnessImpairments of Theory of Mind
• TOMM impairments?– SAM is impaired, so TOMM must be too!
IDDesires an goals
EDDEyes can see things
SAMInfers desires and goals based on eye direction
TOMMAllows the full range of mental states
Is autism an extremeof the male brain?
Triad of difficultiesTriad of difficulties
Social Communication Imagining others minds
Empathizing
Triad of strengthsTriad of strengths
Islets of obsessions repetitive
ability with systems behaviour
Systemizing
The autistic spectrum: two subgroups
• Classic autism– Any point on the IQ scale– Involves language delay
• Asperger Syndrome– Individuals of normal IQ or above– No language delay
Genetics of autism
• Twin studies
• Sibling risk rates
• The ‘broader phenotype’
Autism: the sex ratio
• Autism spectrum: 4:1 (male:female)
• Asperger Syndrome: 9:1
Hans Asperger (1944)
“The autistic personality is an extreme variant of male intelligence…
In the autistic individual the male pattern is exaggerated to the extreme”
Sex differences in the mind: the classical view
–Spatial ability (right hemisphere)• males > females
–Language (left hemisphere)• females > males
–Mathematical ability• males > females
Boys > girls:Toy vehicles, constructional toys, and mechanical toys
Girls > boys:Dolls, enacting social and emotional themes
Males > females:
maths, computing, physics, engineering, tool-making
Females > males:
Primary school teaching, nursing, social work, counselling
Two psychological processes
• Empathizing (E)
– identify a person’s thoughts and feelings– respond to these with an appropriate emotion
• Systemizing (S)
– analyse or build a system – mechanical, natural, abstract, collectible
Different profiles
• S > E : more common in males?
• E > S : more common in females?
• S >> E : more common in autism?