infant education
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W7L1UnderstandingOthersandTheoryofMind.pptxUnderstanding Others (Theory of Mind and Beyond)
Penny Van Bergen | ECHE2180
Lecture Outline
Theory of Mind
Perspective-taking skills
Implications for social functioning
Classroom implications
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Lecture Outline
Theory of Mind
Perspective-taking skills
Implications for social functioning
Classroom implications
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Theory of Mind
Cognitive awareness of others’ mental world
Includes desires, emotions, beliefs
Preceded by joint attention, social referencing etc
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| Skill | Age |
| Understand others’ desires | 2+ |
| Understand others’ emotions | 3+ |
| Understanding others’ beliefs | 4+ |
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(Possible) Components
“The mind exists”
“The mind represents ideas, memories, beliefs”
“These representations may or may not be correct”
“These representations might differ from mine”
“The mind mediates interpretation of reality”
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Testing Theory of Mind
Often tested using false belief tasks
Child has a correct belief
Story protagonist should have an incorrect belief
Can child understand protagonist’s perspective?
A number of similar tasks
Deceptive contents test (e.g. with smarties or maltesers)
Unexpected transfer test (e.g. with Sally-Anne, Maxi)
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Deceptive Contents Test
Smarties box is filled with pencils
Children are asked what is in it. “Smarties”
Children are shown inside and asked again. “Pencils!”
Children are then introduced to “Tom”
“Tom hasn’t seen inside. What will he think is inside?”
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Unexpected Transfer Test
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Sally
Anne
Where will Sally look for her ball?
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Research Findings
Supported by other cognitive development
Esp. executive function, WM, attention
E.g. better in bilinguals as better inhibitory control
Supported by socialisation
Younger siblings acquire ToM more quickly
Twins acquire ToM more slowly
Deaf children may acquire ToM more slowly
Mental state discourse critical!
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(e.g. Peterson & Wellman, 2009, 2013; Rubio-Fernandez, 2017; Welch-Ross, 1997)
Deaf children: only if born to hearing parents, not if engaged in sign language
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Lecture Outline
Theory of Mind
Perspective-taking skills
Implications for social functioning
Classroom implications
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Perspective Taking
Ability to “Step into someone else’s shoes”
Emotional (what are they feeling?)
Social (“what are they thinking?”)
Skills/abilities only: not always used!
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To know what that person is thinking and feelig
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Selman’s Model of Perspective Taking
Five-stage model
Supported by much research
BUT significant age variations
Key tenet: social dilemmas produce differences in reasoning
(e.g. Selman, 1976, 1980; Selman & Byrne, 1974)
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e.g. Holly’s Dilemma
Holly is an 8 year old girl who likes to climb trees. She is the best tree climber in the neighbourhood. One day while climbing down from a tall tree Holly falls from the bottom branch but does not hurt herself. Her father sees her fall. He is upset and makes her promise not to climb trees anymore. Holly promises. Later that day, Holly meets Sean. Sean’s kitten is caught in a tree and cannot get down. Something has to be done right away or the kitten could fall. Holly is the only one who climbs trees well enough to reach the kitten, but she remembers her promise to her father.
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| Level | Age | Characteristic |
| Egocentric | 3-6 | Don’t understand that others might think differently to oneself (Holly assumes her father will be happy) |
| Social informational perspective-taking | 6-8 | Know others can have different views but assume it is because they have access to different information (“if only she knew…”) (Holly believes her father’s anger will disappear when she shows him the kitten, because then he’ll realise she was right) |
| Self-reflective perspective-taking | 8-10 | Can see something from someone else’s point of view, but can’t reflect on own and others perspective at same time. (Holly wants to avoid punishment so will try and convince her father of her motives) |
| Third-party perspective-taking | 10-12 | Can imagine the situation from a bystander’s perspective, considering multiple points of view at the same time (Holly knows her father may or may not be convinced) |
| Societal perspective-taking | 12+ | Can interpret behaviours from a societal perspective, integrating societal norms and values (The value of humane treatment requires Holly to act) |
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Consider a young child who sees that mum is sad and gives her his teddy, as that makes him happy. Or when I got a transformer for my birthday despite liking Rainbow Bright and Cabbage Patch Kids
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Penny’s study (FYI only)
Aim
Scaffold school children’s emotional perspective-taking
Participants
145 children from twelve K-1 classes
Classroom teachers
Design
Quasi-experimental allocation of classes to condition
Three conditions: story-telling, memories, or control
Penny’s study (FYI only)
Intervention sessions
Teacher-run with whole class
3 x 20 min lessons / week
Penny’s study (FYI only)
Aim
Scaffold school children’s emotional perspective-taking
Participants
145 children from twelve K-1 classes
Classroom teachers
Design
Quasi-experimental allocation of classes to condition
Three conditions: story-telling, memories, or control
Findings: Pre-intervention
Can you tell me a time that you had a fight with a classmate?
Joe: Um that people were being mean to me. Some people cause they said they tipped me on the front of my foot when I was playing foot tips, but they didn’t tip me on the front of my foot, they tipped me on the back of the foot or on my sock somewhere because um, I can’t really even feel it on the front of my feet, I can’t even feel it.
Abby: They were being mean to me… we were playing tips and they said that I was in but I don’t like it.
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Findings: Post-intervention
Can you tell me a time that you had a fight with a classmate?
Sally: Well I’ve had a fight with the girls because... I wanted a turn [of Catherine’s teddy] and Catherine asked Coco very nicely if she could have it back so I could have a turn, and Coco said no, and then she said I’m not inviting you to my party, but she all.. but she, I’ve already got the invitation for it!
Coco felt angry. Because I saw her face and she was talking in her angry voice… Yeah, and I felt a bit sad that I didn’t get a turn of, turn of…of the teddy bear, but I didn’t want to show my friends how I felt inside. So I just, had a smile on my face and I said to myself not to be sad. And I told my friends that having fights with, with girls reminds me that my best friend is in Sydney.
Lecture Outline
Theory of Mind
Perspective-taking skills
Implications for social functioning
Classroom implications
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Implications for Social Functioning
Interpreting others
e.g. recursive thought (“I think that he thinks…”)
Group decision-making
Meeting mutual goals (recall social skills lectures!)
Moral reasoning
Getting your own way
Knowing how to lie effectively
Knowing how to hurt others
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e.g. Children’s Ability to Lie
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e.g. Children’s Ability to Lie
Younger children…
Typically give themselves away
Fail to keep track of all the details
Lie more for personal gain
Older children…
Better able to maintain lie
But anticipate feeling bad! (moral devt)
Differentiate “good” and “bad” lies
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e.g. Pro-social Behaviour
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Lecture Outline
Theory of Mind
Perspective-taking skills
Implications for social functioning
Classroom implications
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Classroom Implications
Consider children’s current abilities
Can they see other’s points of view?
Implications for social functioning
Implications for argumentative reasoning in schoolwork
Scaffold new perspective-taking development
Via modeling
Using mental state discourse: “what might they think?”
With class activities that require ‘being someone else’
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