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