Development of empathy and theory of mind

Premack & Woodruff (1978)

Chimpanzee has a theory of mind, after studying female chimpanzee shown scenes of human actors struggling with problems

Sally-Anne task

Failure of Theory of mind. Little boy doesn't realize that his dad who is not present at the time, would not have same knowledge he has about what's in the bag

Phylogeny

Evolutionary history of a species or group of species.

empathy related behaviors

Example: Simner found that newborns who were exposed to another infant crying showed distress

mirror neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy.

empathy

Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives

Ontogeny

The history of development of an individual organism during its lifetime.

simulation theory

The theory that we come to understand others (their emotions, actions, mental states) by vicariously producing their current state in ourselves

language

a significant prerequisite for cognitive empathy because it allows us to abstractly understand feelings and take perspectives

Baron-Cohen et al

a) Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind"? b) Another advanced theory of mind

Povinelli & Eddy (1996)

chimps begged with equal probability from humans facing them and humans with buckets over their heads, leading scientists to claim chimps can predict actions but not understand the psychological states

Krupenye et al (2016)

evidence that great apes do understand false beliefs after being shown videos of actor in King Kong suit

theory of mind

people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Zahn-Waxler et al (1992)

studied development of empathy related behaviors in children ages 14-36 months. significant development in second year of life, developing concern

theory-theory

the idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear by constructing theories