Question

Qu 3. In class, we discussed two measures for theory of mind: the Sally/Ann task, and the mountain task. Choose one of these two measures, and describe: (a) the procedure used to carry out the task (b) the possible outcomes (i.e. the possible responses the child might make), and how those outcomes are interpreted

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Answer 1

I would like to choose Sally/Ann's task which is referred to as the false-belief task. The false-belief task is used to study the theory of mind in developing children. Theory of mind asserts that younger children (usually below four years of age) are less likely to have the perspective-taking ability and they tend to have the false-belief.

(a) Procedure

Step-1: Story-telling

Sally and Ann are two dolls, Sally puts a marble in her bucket in front of Ann who has her box. After some time, Sally went away. Meanwhile, Ann transferred those marbles from Sally's bucket to her box. After some time, Sally returns.

Step-2: Asking questions from the child

There are three questions to test three developmental issues of children:

1. "Where will Sally search for her marbles?" This question will serve as a measure of the child's belief concerning the location of marbles.

2. "Where are marbles in actual?" This question will serve as a measure of reality that the child is supposed to have.

3. "Where were marbles initially?" This question will serve as a measure of memory.

All these three questions will be asked to the child in order to check his/her belief, sense of reality, and memory.

Possible outcomes

Studies have found that typical children below age four-year-old tend to fail these tasks, they mostly incorrectly answer these questions. For example, a three-year-old child will say that Sally should look for her marbles in the box because Ann has transferred marbles into the box. However, this child has failed because the child does not think from another’s perspective, rather the child thinks only from his/her perspective while ignoring the fact that how can Sally know the location of her marbles even she was not there. Studies have also found that children aged four years and above tend to pass this task. For example, a five-year-old child will most likely say that Sally will look for her marbles in the bucket because she left marbles there in the bucket initially. So, her first response will be to approach that bucket because Sally does not know whatever happened in her absence. The interpretation of these possible outcomes is the age difference. Younger children tend to have a narrow mindset while older children tend to have a broader mindset. Younger children are less able to think from a third person’s perspective while older children tend to see things from different perspectives. Therefore, younger children mostly fail the task used to study the theory of mind.

Reference:

Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A.M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? Cognition, 21, 37-46.