Point of View and Theory of Mind

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Point of View and Theory of Mind

• Jill de Villiers
• Smith College
• Thomas Roeper
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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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

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Where does it begin?

• By the end of the first year of life, normally
  developing infants
• Respond to anothers 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
  peoples behavior and treat others as sources of
  information or help.

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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.

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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 speakers 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)

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Desire

• Want the verb is among the first fifty words in
  MacArthur inventory.
• Its mostly in reference to the childs own
  desires
• However, children by 2 understand that others may
  like things they dont 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)

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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
  its a ball
• Children at 3-4 years agree that
• he didnt 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.

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Mental verbs

• The appearance of mental verbs like think,
• know is early (3 years) but often stereotyped
  e.g.
• I dont 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.g
• Mom thought that the shampoo was the toothpaste
• And the embedded sentence can be FALSE from the
  childs Point of View, but TRUE for Mom.

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Mental verbs

• Once the child has this capacity, he can
  represent two worlds his own, and someone elses
  mental world.
• Verbs of communication like say, tell, provide
  the bootstrap for figuring out complements with
  mental verbs (de Villiers, 19952004).
• 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.

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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, 20002003)
• 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, 2003Lohmann Tomasello, 2003)

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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
  others mistakes in usage for a while (de
  Villiers, 2004).

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Model of PoV and ToM
ToM
PoV
Early ToM gaze shared attention, pointing
Early language names, actions, social routines
Differentiation of self and other Appreciation of
switch in perspective
I/you. Here/there This/that Articles a/the
Appreciation of different tastes, likes,
attitudes
I want, you want, he wants Yucky, nice, scary
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
Deixis, pronouns, adjectives, reference and
tense markers under embedding, Plus multiple
embedding
Increasing capacity for abstract reasoning about
complex human events
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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.

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Articles

• A gt 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--gt pick up the pencil
• must be pencil of each of you (not
  neighbors!)

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Articles and Time
Articles allow Temporal Displacement 1. All
the sick children are well 2. The professors
were radicals in the sixties current
professors, who were students then 3. 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 gt
yes Were there hot mice in the pool gt
no Children 3-5.5 yrs 17 No article
variation 12 Adult pattern
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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 Sarahs 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 speakers PoV
• And the new coat is Sams PoV.

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Adjectivesgt Subject or Speaker

• Mary likes yucky clothes Speaker-POV
• Speaker thinks they are
  yucky
• Do children grasp POV contrast?
• Do they see yucky as Marys view too?
• Susans darn beloved dog
• Speaker Subject
• beloved darn dog
• Universal Grammar
• Speaker adjective is on outside

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Adverbs

• Unfortunately, definitely, sure, really, maybe
• maybe it may be General POV
• Cause you're really tired (Nina, 29.26)
• very or it is real that
• Verbal modifier
• Yeah, really she didn't. (Nina, 32.12)
• Is Paul really just a baby? (Adam, 34.18)

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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 5yrs
• Fail to reliably construe Speaker POV

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Pronouns under embedding

• Quotation John said I can do it
• I subject
• John said that I can do it
• I 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

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Hollebrandse (2000) Quotation
Bart (speaker) One day we were going for a bike ride. ltPhotograph of a bicyclegt On this bicycle. And you know bike rides can be quite dangerous. ltPhotograph of Bart next to a bicycle wearing a helmetgt So, I decided to wear a helmet ltpoint to the helmetgt. And Deanne? ltPhotograph of Deanne wearing blue glovesgt She decided to wear these big blue gloves. But we werent all that sure whether that was safe enough and so Deanne was going to ask Daddy. But Daddy was at work.ltPhotograph of Deanne on the phonegt 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?
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Results
If Quote How did Deanne ask Can I ride a
bike? gt on the phone Bart speaking How did
Deanne ask can I ride a bike gt I Bart gt
with a helmet Children with blue gloves gt
failure to shift POV 60 3yr olds gt
long-distance ride a bike with helmet 20 6yr
olds gt short-distance General Conclusion
Children do not understand POV shift with
quotation immediately
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Language variation
Navajo and Arabic (Speas, Abdul-Karim) Navajo
John thought that I can do it I John Arabic
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
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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

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PoV chain
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