AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -ToM is the ability to understand and take into account another individual’s mental state (Premack and Woodruff, 1978). In humans, ToM and the understanding that a person can hold a false belief develop between the ages of 3–4 years and is fully developed only at the age of 5.

Detailed explanation-2: -Theory of Mind is the branch of cognitive science that investigates how we ascribe mental states to other persons and how we use the states to explain and predict the actions of those other persons. More accurately, it is the branch that investigates mindreading or mentalizing or mentalistic abilities.

Detailed explanation-3: -The understanding that people don’t share the same thoughts and feelings as you do develops during childhood, and is called “theory of mind”. Another way to think about it is a child’s ability to “tune-in” to other peoples’ perspectives [1]. This ability doesn’t emerge overnight, and it develops in a predictable order.

Detailed explanation-4: -By age 2, children clearly show awareness of the difference between thoughts in the mind and things in the world. In pretend play (e.g., pretending a block is a car), toddlers show that they can distinguish between an object – the block – and thoughts about the object – the block as a car.

Detailed explanation-5: -Researchers propose that five key aspects of theory of mind develop sequentially for all children between the ages of three and five: diverse desires (DD), diverse beliefs (DB), knowledge access (KA), false beliefs (FB), and hidden emotions (HE).