Social cognition

1. Theory of mind
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Matt Jarvis

2. Defining theory of mind
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To understand what is happening when someone goes to
the kitchen cupboard that usually contains the cornflakes:
The cornflakes example
They want
cornflakes
They think the
cornflakes are
in the cupboard
They are
wrong — I ate
the cornflakes
Three judgments requiring theory of mind.

3. A confusing term
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Theory of mind is confusing because it sounds like it should be a
psychological theory. It is not a theory.
Instead it refers to the individual theories we have about what is
happening in the minds of others.
What are they
thinking?
What are they
feeling?
Why are they
doing that?
What do they
believe?
What do they
want?

4. Hodder & Stoughton © 2020
Self-presentation
Children are capable of understanding why people mask
their emotions in order to influence other people’s
impression of them.
For example, that a sad person might act happy in order
to appear resilient.
This requires theory of mind because it involves:
• understanding that people sometimes want to hide
their real feelings
• understanding that other people may judge them
based on their real feelings

5. Hodder & Stoughton © 2020
Atypical development
Baron-Cohen and colleagues found that children on the autistic spectrum
found theory of mind tasks very difficult.
The Sally-Anne task
Sally has a marble in her basket. When she is out of the room Anne moves
the marble to her box. Where will Sally look for the marble when she comes
back?
The Sally-Anne task requires children to realise that Sally will not know
Anne has moved her marble.
When the task was administered using dolls and human actors, children on
the autistic spectrum did worse on the Sally-Anne task than others,
including younger children and those with other learning disabilities.

6. Social development
High level of theory of mind predicts later good
social development
Poor theory of mind predicts poorer social
development.
BUT
• This does not mean there is a simple causal
relationship between theory of mind and social
development.
• We cannot assume that enhancing theory of mind
will impact positively on social development.
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7. Conclusions
• Theory of mind is an important cognitive ability.
• It involves the understanding of what is happening in the
minds of other people.
• Theory of mind is important in understanding self-
presentation.
• Children on the autistic spectrum do worse on some
theory of mind tasks.
• Good theory of mind skills are associated with good social
development.
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