Theory of Mind (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Theory of mind

• Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to understand that other people have separate mental states, i.e., thoughts, feelings, ideas, attitudes or knowledge, from one’s own

• One aspect of ToM is understanding intentionality in terms of another person’s behaviour, e.g., I can predict that James is going to take his dog for a walk because he has come out of his house wearing his green ‘dog-walking’ coat’

• The ability to understand the intentions of other people shows an appreciation that people are motivated by their beliefs and attitudes, which is a precursor to the development of ToM (Dennett, 1987)

• ToM is thought to be fully developed by the age of 3 or 4 years old, depending on the child, although some researchers claim that infants as young as 7-9 months old understand intentionality to some extent (Baron-Cohen, 1991)

• Research has shown that ToM has a biological basis – a theory of mind module (ToMM), which is a mechanism that matures in the brain at around 4 years of age (Baron-Cohen et al, 1985)

False-belief tasks

• A ‘false belief’ task is a way to test ToM

  • These tasks were developed to test whether children can understand that others can believe something that is not true

  • To pass a false belief task, an individual must be able to predict the actions, thoughts or beliefs of another person

  • False belief tasks tend to be conducted with young children around the age of 3-4 years to assess the extent of their TOM

• A classic false belief task is the ‘Smarties’ test (Hogrefe, Wimmer, and Perner, 1986): 

  1. Present the box
     Show the child a Smarties box and ask: “What do you think is inside?”
     – The child typically answers: “Smarties”

  2. Reveal the unexpected content
     Open the box to show that it actually contains pencils

  3. Ask the False Belief Question
     Ask the child: “What will your friend think is inside the box?” (The friend hasn't seen inside)

  4. Evaluate the response

     • If the child says “Smarties”, they pass – showing they understand that others can hold false beliefs.

     • If the child says “pencils”, they fail – assuming others know what they know, indicating egocentric thinking.

Sally-Anne task

• The Sally-Anne task (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985) is another false belief task assessing ToM:

  1. Introduce the dolls
     Show the child two dolls: Sally (with a basket) and Anne (with a box)

  2. Set up the scenario
     Sally places a marble in her basket and then leaves the room

  3. Create the false belief
     While Sally is gone, Anne moves the marble from the basket to her own box

  4. Ask the key question
     Ask the child: “Where will Sally look for her marble?”

  5. Evaluate the response

     • If the child says “basket”, they pass – understanding Sally has a false belief.

     • If the child says “box”, they fail – assuming Sally knows what they know, showing egocentric thinking.

• The Sally-Anne task has been used to explore links between ToM deficits and ASD to offer some insight as to why children with ASD have difficulty seeing from the perspective of others

Research which investigates theory of mind

• Meltzoff (1988) studied intentional reasoning in children around 18 months old who were able to place beads in a jar, despite observing adults struggle to put the beads in the jar

  • The toddlers imitated what the adult had intended to do, showing that very young children have a simple ToM

• Wimmer & Perner (1983) carried out a false belief task with 3-4-year-old children who were told a story about Maxi leaving his chocolate in the blue cupboard before going out to play; his mum then took some and placed it in a green cupboard

  • Nearly all 3-year-olds fail the false belief task by saying the chocolate is in the green cupboard, but most 4-year-olds pass the task by saying it is in the blue cupboard

  • This suggests that ToM undergoes a shift and becomes more advanced at around 4 years old

• Baron-Cohen et al. (1997) conducted the Eyes Task, in which adolescents and adults were shown greyscale photographs of faces displaying only the eye region and asked to select the word that best described the emotion being expressed

  • Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) struggled with this task, suggesting that ToM deficits might be linked to ASD 

Evaluation of theory of mind for A Level psychology

Strengths

• Understanding ToM could be applied to anti-bullying strategies: Sutton et al. (1999) found that bullies need to be skilled in social cognition and ToM in order to manipulate others; hence, this could be used in a positive way to address the bullying behaviour

• ToM research has helped develop an understanding of autism, which has led to effective ToM training designed to improve the social skills of children with HFASD

  • Children that had ToM training had a significantly higher social skills score compared to children that had a regular school program, showing that ToM research has led to successful interventions for autistic children

Limitations

• The Sally-Anne study has low validity, as success on a false belief task requires memory as well as ToM, as there is a lot of information for a 3-year-old to remember

  • A child can have a well-developed ToM and enjoy pretend play (which requires a ToM) but still struggle with a false-belief task, which is a problem, as ToM has been dominated by false-belief research

• There is no formal consensus among researchers over how ToM develops, as Perner et al. (2002) believe it develops in line with all cognitive abilities (Piagetian approach), whereas Astington (1998) suggests we internalise our ToM during early interactions with adults (Vygotskian approach)

  • This suggests that the explanations of how ToM develops are not valid because the concepts are difficult to test

Issues & Debates

• The idea of an innate Theory of Mind Module (ToMM) exemplifies the nature side of the nature vs nurture debate, suggesting ToM is biologically hardwired and matures with age

  • However, Vygotskian approaches suggest nurture is key, with social interaction and early caregiver input shaping ToM — indicating an interactionist view

• Research into Theory of Mind, especially when applied to autism, is socially sensitive, as it may unintentionally pathologise neurodivergent individuals

  • Labelling ToM deficits in autistic individuals risks reinforcing negative stereotypes and could lead to stigmatisation, even though many people with autism develop alternative but effective ways of understanding others