Theory of Mind

theory of mind

the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and to others

when we use theory of mind

reflexively (gaze following) and strategically (predicting behavior and creating counter-strategies)

spectrum of theory of mind

understanding goals —> understanding perceptions —> understanding knowledge —> understanding beliefs

understanding goals in human

infants 9+ months old showed more impatience when an experimenter dropped a toy on purpose than by accident, 6 month old infants looked longer when an experimenter not a mechanical claw reached for an object that was different from the one they showed interest in

understanding goals in great apes

chimps, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans anticipated the goal-directed action of the human hand but not a mechanical claw, capuchins got annoyed when experimenters were unwilling, not unable, to give them food

understanding goals

what do they want?

understanding perceptions

what do they see/hear?

understanding knowledge

what do they know? what do they not know?

understanding beliefs

full blown theory of mind, what do they believe? is their belief in alignment with reality?

understanding perceptions in humans

understanding attentional states and communicative cues, tracking vs exploiting communicative cues

understanding attentional states and communicative cues

gaze following: present in all primates but varies across species, emerges as early as 6 months in infants; gestural communication

tracking vs exploiting communicative cues

2 year olds use gaze alteration, head/body orientation, and pointing to determine location of hidden food (chimps don’t)

understanding perception in chimps

can track social cues (gaze following) but not exploit them as socio-communicative cues

chimp social systems

high competitive feeding ecologies, no communicative gestures when foraging in the wild, not motivated to share information, to out-compete others: track social information, conceal behavior, exploit a competitor’s perspective for personal benefit

visual perspective taking in chimps

part of understanding perceptions, subordinate chimps and capuchins will choose food that a dominant cannot see, attributing knowledge to a particular individual and reacting accordingly rather than attributing to a dominant

understanding false beliefs in humans

full-blown theory of mind, emerges at 4-5 years old, understanding that others can have beliefs that are different from your own and from reality, behavior is driven by beliefs about reality even if false, sally-anne test

understanding belief in chimps

cannot attribute false beliefs to others, subordinates did not obtain more food when the dominant was misinformed

implicit false belief

anticipatory looking via eye tracking, looking time via violation of expectation, seen in 15 month old humans, unclear if present in chimps

explicit false belief

sally-anne test (verbal/behavioral response), seen 4-5 year olds but not in chimps

4-5 year old humans

can track, predict, and exploit (cooperation and competition) all ways of knowing in both collaborative and competitive scenarios

chimpanzees

can track, predict, and exploit, but only in competitive contexts; better at tool use, causal reasoning, spatial memory, aggression; understanding beliefs: can track and predict but not exploit

monkeys

can track, most can predict, mostly old monkeys can potentially exploit but mostly competitive, not much is known about beliefs

bonobos

better at gaze following, food sharing, cooperation, social play