Theory of Mind
Before age 3, children have problem with false belief tasks
Theory of mind
Children from large families perform better on false belief tasks
Before theory of mind:
- Poor performance on certain tasks
- Say mom would believe candy was in crayon box because that’s what they believe
After: - Correctly say mom would believe crayons to be in box
Theory of mind also needed to perform tricks/deceive others
Developing a Theory of Mind
Age 2 or 3: Good thinkers, but don’t consider their own thinking or others
Around age 4: begin to develop a theory of mind
False-belief problems - setting up a situation in which a child believes incorrectly that another person shares the same knowledge that the child has
- Crayon box problem
- Three mountains task
- Sally and Annie ball task (“where will Sally look for her ball?”)
Egocentrism - Centered on their own perspective