Dennett Theory Of Mind Essay

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When looking at suggestions from Dennett (1978), it was seen that researchers have developed a task believed to analyse a representational theory of mind in children which is termed as the “false belief” task. The false belief task was related to the ‘‘Theory of mind’’, which is about predicting and explaining the actions of others by raising their mental states, for example: their goals and beliefs (Premack & Woodruff, 1978). The term “theory of mind” helps us understand that individuals are aware at the fact that we observe others abstract mental states and have a better vision and prediction of how they will act and behave. Further into investigation it can be noticed that researchers and theorists have suggested that having a representational theory of mind provides the foundation for several important aspects of social-cognitive functioning, such as teaching and learning, lying and pretending, making and keeping friends, and social learning more generally (Tomasello, 2009). …show more content…

However there has been various studies that have carried out these experiments on younger infants and have argued with this statement. This essay will aim to look at different types of false belief tasks which include, change-of-location test, in which an object is moved in the absence of a story character (e.g., the ‘‘Sally–Anne’’ test; (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985; Wimmer & Perner, 1983), and the unexpected-contents test, in which a box does not contain what it is supposed to contain (the ‘‘Smarties’’ test; Hogrefe, Wimmer, & Perner, 1986; Perner, Leekam, & Wimmer,1987). Different studies will also be presented which include a negative argument towards the strength of the false belief task