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5 Written Questions

1. an understanding that the same world can be experienced in different ways by different people. each person therefore has a distinctive belief about reality. the ability to infer mental states in others & see them as a basis for overt action. ->a decive for understanding social behaviour
2. infants by 15 months imitate on the basis of the intention of an actor rather than the basis of an actor's actual behaviour ->understand that the goals of another person transforms their bodily motions into purposeful behaviour
3. ability to appreciate other people's internal feelings & the knowledge that their over behaviour is governed by various inner motives is essential to 'reading' others and thus to mature social functioning
4. begin to talk about beliefs & thoughts as well as desires. seem to understand that beliefs are mental represenations that can be false as well as true. but still explain other people's actions in terms of desires rather than beliefs
5. second-year on, children are able to engage in make-believe play e.g. child may endow various mental states on dolls - need a powerful imagination, for being able to work out how other people function

5 Matching Questions

1. implicit understanding
2. 4 years - belief desire psychology
3. repacholi et al (1997)
4. callaghan et al (2005)
5. mitchell et al (1991)

1. a in the maxi task, 3 yr olds but not 2.5, look at the correct 1st location but state that maxi will look in the 2nd location
2. b similar task completion age across ultures - canada, samoa, india, peru
3. c begin to understand what people think & believe as well as what they desire crucially effects how they behave. beliefs & desires are thought to determine actions jointly
4. d 14 month & 18 months. experimenter observed espressing disgust as she tasted one type of food, happiness when she tasted another. 14 months - offered whichever food they preferred themselves. 18 months - offered food corresponding w/prior positive affect
5. e tube presented, 3 yr old children mailed a picture into a postbox of what they thought was inside (smarties). shown that crayons in box. most children correctly answered 'smarties' when asked what they thought was in the box. suggests that in the traditional task, children may give the wrong answer because they are biased to make judgements baout belief states on the basis of known physical reality.

5 Multiple Choice Questions

1. children's spontaneous talk of toehr's internalstates increases with age, at age 2 desire terms are most frequent, followed by feeling state & then mental state
   1. brown et al(1991)
   2. hughes et al (1998)
   3. russell et al (1991)
   4. mitchell et al (1991)
2. an intuitive theory of action. actions caused by intentional mental states
   1. mentalism
   2. self-awareness
   3. empathy
   4. dennett (1978)
3. "critical conditions" for eliciting false beliefs task performance in 3 yr olds. young children have an excessive reality orientation - orientated to what is actually the case rather than what someone might think is the case. know people try to satisfy their desires. limited executive, linguistic or memory abilities that prevent them from understanding task questions keeping track of info. executive skills like self-regulation and inhibition of responses may be critical
   1. mitchell et al (1991)
   2. capacity for pretence
   3. theory of mind
   4. critcisms of fb tasks
4. unexpected contents tasks. competitive game. 4 year olds tell opponent to choose empty box, 3 year olds point to full. young children have difficulty pointing to a salient object. controlled their behaviour despite desire for sweets & frustration
   1. repacholi et al (1997)
   2. hughes et al (1998)
   3. russell et al (1991)
   4. mitchell et al (1991)
5. first signs of empahty shown early in life. trained mothers kept records of what their children did when witnessing naturally occurring expressions of emotion. 10 months - showed some reaction, e.g. watching intently or about 1/3 showing signs of distress themselves. over the next year, signs of distress declined, children actively intervened. 18 months + verbally expressed sympathy, offered objects & made suggestions
   1. mitchell et al (1991)
   2. zahn-waxler et al (1982)
   3. russell et al (1991)
   4. hughes et al (1998)

5 True/False Question

1. dennett (1978) → false belief tasks. the prediction of another person's belief on the basis of this person's false belief. control questions to check child understand the sequence of events
   

   True        False

2. hughes et al (1998) → individual differences in theory of mind. followed 50 children over a 1 year period. mean age - 3 years 11 months until 5 years. performance of different fb tasks highly correlated. verbal ability was significant covariate. performance also associated w/mental state talk & predicting actions or emotions based on false beliefs. increased mental stage references in conversation, increased fb understanding. shift from referring primarily to their ownmental states to referring at least as often to shared or others' mental stress
   

   True        False

3. ability to distinguish reality from pretence → second-year on, children are able to engage in make-believe play e.g. child may endow various mental states on dolls - need a powerful imagination, for being able to work out how other people function
   

   True        False

4. self-awareness → a precursor for theory of mind: evident from quite an early age - e.g. children's expressions of their feelings & desires. basic pre-requisite for understanding mental operations generally
   

   True        False

5. infant pre-cursors of theory of mind → interested & highly attentive to faces & voices. able to discriminate facial expressions in first 2 years. follow another person's gaze
   

   True        False