theory of mind - chapter 17

self reflesive thought

involves ability to think about yourself as an object

do baby self reflect

• babies cant distinguish themselves from others (ego centric)

• but at 6-12 months they can master the tools they need to aquatic for the next 3-5 years

self reflection

a redirection of attentional focus from sensory events to internal thoughts, memories, feelings and viseral (body) sensations

• default mode engages when we think about ourselves

• theres a decrease in activity in this region if we shift our focus on someone/something else

Imitation

Human tendency to carefully observe others behaviors and copy it

• when people mutually mimic one another they reach synchrony

• Synchronization reflects how much people enjoy each others interaction (more synchronization means more enjoyness)

agents

• moving agents in the world that can act on their own

• agents focus on goals often an object that they can seek out and move toward

• we learn to identify others behavior are intentional or unintentional by using mimicry to judge if it is or not (mimicking their behavior)

mirror neurons

• neurons discovered in the premotor cortex that fire when an animal/human passively views someone else perform an action

• the more similar the species are the larger the responses are

• they respond to more goal directed biological actions

perspective taking (mentalizing)

ability's to adopt the perspective of another person and distinguish it from ones own

Social projection

Absence of perspective taking, by assuming other perspectives equals our own

Automatic empathy

Empathy built on visual or emotional cues without it being directly told

Ex. Bill is less talkative and less smiley per usual, Elena notices this and subtly imitates this behavior and will feel that sadness with him only by observing him

People’s explanations of behaviour

The human need to understand why. We try always reason out why someone behaviors or feels a certain way in situations

how chimps mentalize

• subordinate chimps judge the perspective of dominant chimps to their advantage

• they choose food rewards they don’t think the dominant can see

• they judge where they think the dominants chimp is looking

how do we extract information from the eyes for humans

• evolution has changed the eyes to gain information

• the sclera is dark in non human primates but is white in hominids

• this enhances our ability to follow ones gaze and to distinguish between emotions

how gaze modulates attention

gaze can cue attention in the same way as an arrow

-we can tell where a persons attention lies based on their gaze

shared/joint attention

• eye gaze and body language together provide important social information

• way of processing where important resources are based on the cues of another individual

(if someone looks left, we tend to look the same direction to see why its important to be looking in that direction)

stimulation

using ones own mental state as a model of what you believe other people must be thinking

theory of mind

• inferring unobservable mental states in others (inferring what people are thinking through actions)

• attributing those actions to their beliefs ,goals ,desires and feelings

• being able to read people through expression is a skill, not something everybody is good at

autisim spectrum disorder

• spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorder involving impairments in children’s social interactions, communication abilities and executive functions

• they have difficulties with symbolic play (imagination)

• they have specific theory of mind impairments

false belief test

• test where the observed individual believes in something that the perspective taker knows to be untrue

• tests if the person will reply with the truth or if they will take on the response of the perspective taker

location change tasks (example of false belief test) and its relation to theory of mind

• object is placed in location A and then switched without the third party knowing

• the participant must indicate where the third party would look for the object

• in kids or people with autism who dont have fully developed theory of mind, they would assume the third person knows that the object was moved, and pick the location of where the moved object is

types of false belief tests

• location change task

• unexpected content task

• faux pas detection task

• reading the mind in the eyes task

interventions with people who have autisim for theory of mind

• high functioning people with autisim can use language to compensate

• interventions that target specifically theory of mind is not helpful instead using multiple social and executive functions are more helpful

Intentionality

You need goals and the belief system about how to achieve those goals