Theory of Mind: Theory of Mind (Often Abbreviated Tom) Is The Ability To Attribute Mental States

Theory of mind
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theory of mind (often abbreviated ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states beliefs,
intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc. to oneself and others and to understand that
others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.[1]
Deficits occur in people with autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder,[2] as well as neurotoxicity due to alcohol abuse.[3] Although there are
philosophical approaches to this, the theory of mind as such is distinct from the philosophy of
mind.
Theory of mind is a theory insofar as the mind is not directly observable.[1] The presumption
that others have a mind is termed a theory of mind because each human can only intuit the
existence of his/her own mind through introspection, and no one has direct access to the mind
of another. It is typically assumed that others have minds by analogy with one's own, and this
assumption is based on the reciprocal nature of social interaction, as observed in joint
attention,[4] the functional use of language,[5] and the understanding of others' emotions and
actions.[6] Having a theory of mind allows one to attribute thoughts, desires, and intentions to
others, to predict or explain their actions, and to posit their intentions. As originally defined,
it enables one to understand that mental states can be the cause ofand thus be used to
explain and predictthe behavior of others.[1] Being able to attribute mental states to others
and understanding them as causes of behavior implies, in part, that one must be able to
conceive of the mind as a "generator of representations".[7][8] If a person does not have a
complete theory of mind it may be a sign of cognitive or developmental impairment.
Theory of mind appears to be an innate potential ability in humans: one requiring social and
other experience over many years for its full development. Different people may develop
more, or less, effective theories of mind. Empathy is a related concept, meaning the
recognition and understanding of the states of mind of others, including their beliefs, desires
and particularly emotions. This is often characterized as the ability to "put oneself into
another's shoes". Recent neuro ethological studies of animal behaviour suggest that even
rodents may exhibit ethical or empathetic abilities.[9] Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive
development maintain that theory of mind is a byproduct of a broader hypercognitive ability
of the human mind to register, monitor, and represent its own functioning.[10]
Research on theory of mind, in humans and animals, adults and children, normally and
atypically developing, has grown rapidly in the 35 years since Premack and Woodruff's paper,
"Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?".[1] The emerging field of social neuroscience
has also begun to address this debate, by imaging the brains of humans while they perform
tasks demanding the understanding of an intention, belief or other mental state in others.
An alternative account of theory of mind is given within operant psychology and provides
significant empirical evidence for a functional account of both perspective taking and
empathy. The most developed operant approach is founded on research on derived relational
responding and is subsumed within what is called, "Relational Frame Theory". According to
this view empathy and perspective taking comprise a complex set of derived relational
abilities based on learning to discriminate and respond verbally to ever more complex
relations between self, others, place, and time, and the transformation of function through
established relations.
Theory of Mind is the branch of cognitive science that investigates how we ascribe mental
states to other persons and how we use the states to explain and predict the actions of those
other persons. More accurately, it is the branch that investigates mindreading or mentalizing
or mentalistic abilities. These skills are shared by almost all human beings beyond early
childhood. They are used to treat other agents as the bearers of unobservable psychological
states and processes, and to anticipate and explain the agents behavior in terms of such states
and processes. These mentalistic abilities are also called folk psychology by philosophers,
and nave psychology and intuitive psychology by cognitive scientists.
It is important to note that Theory of Mind is not an appropriate term to characterize this
research area (and neither to denote our mentalistic abilities) since it seems to assume right
from the start the validity of a specific account of the nature and development of
mindreading, that is, the view that it depends on the deployment of a theory of the mental
realm, analogous to the theories of the physical world (nave physics). But this view
known as theory-theoryis only one of the accounts offered to explain our mentalistic
abilities. In contrast, theorists of mental simulation have suggested that what lies at the root
of mindreading is not any sort of folk-psychological conceptual scheme, but rather a kind of
mental modeling in which the simulator uses her own mind as an analog model of the mind
of the simulated agent.
Theory of mind (ToM) is the intuitive understanding of one's own and other
people's minds or mental states including thoughts, beliefs, perceptions,
knowledge, intentions, desires, and emotionsand of how those mental states
influence behavior. Sometimes called intuitive psychology, folk psychology, or
even mind-reading, ToM is an innate human ability. The understanding that
others have mental states different from one's own makes it possible to infer
what others are thinking and to predict their behavior. This ability to recognize
one's own state of mind and those of others is central to human consciousness.
The study of ToM and identification of the skills comprising ToM is a rapidly
changing field of developmental psychology.

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Theory of mind

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