Point of View and Theory of Mind Jill de Villiers Smith College Thomas Roeper University of...
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Transcript of Point of View and Theory of Mind Jill de Villiers Smith College Thomas Roeper University of...
Point of View and Theory of Mind
Jill de VilliersSmith College
Thomas RoeperUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst
Definitions
• What do we mean by Point of View?• In using language, it is necessary to appreciate the
different perspectives of speaker and hearer.• Point of View is entailed in each of:
– personal reference(I/you) – spatial terms (here/there, infront/behind) – emotional attitudes (desire verbs, attitudinal
adjectives and adverbs) – mental state verbs (think, know)– in complex interactions among these domains
Where does it begin?
• By the end of the first year of life, normally developing infants– Respond to another’s eye gaze by looking at the same
object
– Respond to pointing by following the point and gaze of the other
– Assume intentionality e.g. for animate but not inanimate entities in reaching (Woodward)
– Take turns both vocally and in play behavior
– Make “proto-requests” for help
• By one year of age, infants attend to other people’s behavior and treat others as sources of information or help.
Deixis
• Pronouns: “I” and “you” are attached to speaker and hearer, not to a fixed referent.
• Very early, children mistake these for names and say e.g. “Pick you up” (even signers-Pettito,1987)
• This stage rapidly disappears, usually by 2.5 years, but is protracted in children with autism.
• This/that: These introduce the additional difficulty of size of space:
• “ this hotel”, “this pencil”, “this comma” • - the space contrast shifts!• With a defined barrier, children can attend to the
contrast at 3 years.
Deixis, continued
• Here/there: Like “this/that”, they not only switch with speaker, but the space can zoom out or in in reference.
• With a barrier to define the difference, 3 year olds can handle the contrast in comprehension and production (de Villiers & de Villiers, 1974).
Question: • Do children in fact attend to the speaker’s PoV to
accomplish this, or do they just have a “switch reference” possibility?
• Spanish, Japanese have a three way contrast: here, there, and “over there” i.e. away from BOTH. Perhaps this is the one that requires true perspective taking? (Ueda, p.c. 2004)
Desire
• Want: the verb is among the first fifty words in MacArthur inventory.
• It’s mostly in reference to the child’s own desires• However, children by 2 understand that others may
like things they don’t like(Rechapoli & Gopnik, 1997)
At least, they give someone a food that that person has expressed pleasure towards, even when they hate it.
• And by 3, they refer not only to I want but also you want/he wants etc. (Bartsch & Wellman. 1995)
Desire, continued
• At 3.5, they judge that someone wanted something even though they did not achieve it (Witt, 2000).
• They appreciate that the person wanted it under a certain description e.g. Cookie Monster reaches for what he thinks is a cookie but then discovers it’s a ball:
Children at 3-4 years agree that he didn’t want the ball, he wanted a cookie.So by 4, they understand that referents are linked to
their subjects, in the case of desire. The actual is irrelevant.
Mental verbs
The appearance of mental verbs like think,know is early (3 years) but often stereotyped e.g. “I don’t know” or “I think I can”. There are sporadic real uses e.g.
The breakthrough comes around age four years when children can understand that mental verbs can take a whole sentence in their scope (a complement) e.gMom thought that the shampoo was the toothpaste
And the embedded sentence can be FALSE from the child’s Point of View, but TRUE for Mom.
Mental verbs
• Once the child has this capacity, he can represent two worlds: his own, and someone else’s mental world.
• Verbs of communication like say, tell, provide the bootstrap for figuring out complements with mental verbs (de Villiers, 1995;2004).
• The language paves the way for reasoning about others’ mental states: False Belief understanding.
• Language in this domain seems to drive Theory of Mind rather then vice versa.
Mental verbs
• How do we know?• A) longitudinal studies with typically developing
children (de Villiers & Pyers, 2002)• B) Studies of language delayed deaf children, who
are equivalently delayed in ToM reasoning (de Villiers & de Villiers, 2000;2003)
• C) Studies of language disordered children (de Villiers, Burns & Pearson, 2003)
• D) Training studies that teach normally developing children communication verbs with complements and improve ToM reasoning (Hale & Tager-Flusberg, 2003;Lohmann & Tomasello, 2003)
Reference under embedding
Referential opacity• Children still have to figure out the right Point of View
for the nouns in the embedded clause.• For example, suppose Mom mistakes the shampoo for
toothpaste. We know she is holding shampoo. Does Mom think she is holding shampoo?• 4 and 5 year olds often say “yes” even after they have
appreciated her mistake. They must learn that they need to use her word inside the complement, despite what they know the object to be.
• They may have the rules for referring under their own control, but not necessarily see other’s mistakes in usage for a while (de Villiers, 2004).
Model of PoV and ToM
Early ToM: gazeshared attention,
pointing
Differentiation of selfand other
Appreciation of switch inperspective
Early language: names,actions,
social routines
I/you. Here/thereThis/that
Articles a/the
He says that p He thinks that p He knows that p
Ability to represent two different worlds, hence, false beliefs, content of other minds
Appreciation of different tastes,likes, attitudes
I want, you want, he wants
Yucky, nice, scary
Deixis, pronouns, adjectives, reference and tensemarkers under embedding,Plus multiple embedding…
Increasing capacity for abstract reasoning about complex human events
ToM PoV
Some subtleties
• Consider the way these different elements interact in the language.
• These cases represent the challenge to the language learning child and much remains to be understood about them.
Articles
A => the may just require a switch w/o PoV.Bridge: A boy arrived. The boy was tall I bought a car. The muffler fell off.
Which uses require POV? POV of speaker emerges:
Did the baby eat the best cheese?Speaker or Speaker/Hearer POV
Variable POV:– You each have a pencil--> pick up the pencil
= must be pencil of each of you (not neighbor’s!)
Articles allow Temporal Displacement:1. “All the sick children are well”2. The professors were radicals in the sixties
= current professors, who were students then3. There were radical professors in the sixties
= No article, therefore professors then
Bock and Romero (2000): Mice got hot, then went swimming in a cool pool
Were the hot mice in the pool => yesWere there hot mice in the pool => no
Children 3-5.5 yrs17 No article variation12 Adult pattern
Articles and Time
Articles and Speaker -PoV
Imagine Sarah tells Sam that she is going to buy a new coat.
Sam comes home and finds a coat lying on the sofa. In fact it is Sarah’s old coat, but Sam thinks it is a new one.
One can say:Sam thought the old coat was the new coat.
which is paradoxical, on the surface!
But “the old coat” is the speaker’s PoVAnd “the new coat” is Sam’s PoV.
Adjectives=> Subject or Speaker
Mary likes yucky clothes = Speaker-POV = Speaker thinks they are yucky
Do children grasp POV contrast?Do they see yucky as Mary’s view too?
Susan’s darn beloved dog Speaker Subject
*beloved darn dog
Universal Grammar: Speaker adjective is on outside
Adverbs
Unfortunately, definitely, sure, really, maybemaybe = it may be = General POV
• “Cause you're really tired” (Nina, 2;9.26)• = very or it is real that…• Verbal modifier:• “Yeah, really she didn't.” (Nina, 3;2.12)• “Is Paul really just a baby?” (Adam, 3;4.18)
Subject-adjectives
Meanly, anxiously, eagerly
1. Wisely, John told the truth = John was wise
Speaker Adverbs:honestly, truthfully, wisely, luckily
2. Honestly, Bill lied *it was honest that Bill lied
[I am honest] Bill lied = Speaker POV
Verbuk (2003): Children below 5yrsFail to reliably construe Speaker POV
Pronouns under embedding
Quotation; John said “I can do it”I = subject
John said that I can do itI = Speaker
Indefinite embedding:John said that
Bill said that Susan believed that
I can do it I = Speaker John believes that I made you invite him
Bart (speaker): One day we were going for a bike ride. <Photograph of a bicycle> On this bicycle. And you know bike rides can be quite dangerous. <Photograph of Bart next to a bicycle wearing a helmet> So, I decided to wear a helmet <point to the helmet>.
And Deanne? <Photograph of Deanne wearing blue gloves> She decided to wear these big blue gloves. But we weren’t all that sure whether that was safe enough and so Deanne was going to ask Daddy. But Daddy was at work.<Photograph of Deanne on the phone> So, she had to call him and ask him. Deanne asked Daddy: “Can I ride a bike with my blue gloves? And can Bart ride a bike with a helmet?
Bart : “How did Deanne ask can I ride a bike?”
Hollebrandse (2000): Quotation
If Quote: How did Deanne ask “Can I ride a bike?”
=> on the phone
Bart speaking: How did Deanne ask can I ride a bike
=> I = Bart => with a helmet
Children: “with blue gloves” => failure to shift POV
60% 3yr olds => long-distance = ride a bike with helmet
20% 6yr olds => short-distance
General Conclusion: Children do not understand POV shift
with quotation immediately
Results
Navajo and Arabic: (Speas, Abdul-Karim)Navajo: John thought that I can do it
I = JohnArabic: She said that I (fem) can, I (masc) think, do it
I (fem) = Subject she I (masc) = Speaker
Challenge: all children must be able to test if English might be Navajo or Arabic
Time expressions in English:Yesterday John said he did it two days ago.
= two days ago = Speaker= three days ago = Subject
Language variation
Deixis under embedding
• John said yesterday on the phone
• “can you send him to me here now”
• What did he say?
• He said could I send you to him there then
Tanz (1978)
Ask John what color he thinks my eyes are
“What color do you think his eyes are?”
Children 4yrs can make joint POV shift
Conclusion: all POV elements are linked in a POV-CHAIN
PoV chain