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Theory of mind

Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge, etc. — to oneself, and to others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own. Theory of mind is crucial for everyday human social interactions and is used when analyzing, judging, and inferring others' behaviors. Deficits can occur in people with autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, cocaine addiction, and brain damage suffered from alcohol's neurotoxicity. Although philosophical approaches to this exist, the theory of mind as such is distinct from the philosophy of mind. Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge, etc. — to oneself, and to others, and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own. Theory of mind is crucial for everyday human social interactions and is used when analyzing, judging, and inferring others' behaviors. Deficits can occur in people with autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, cocaine addiction, and brain damage suffered from alcohol's neurotoxicity. Although philosophical approaches to this exist, the theory of mind as such is distinct from the philosophy of mind. Theory of mind is a theory insofar as the mind is the only thing being directly observed. The presumption that others have a mind is termed a theory of mind because each human can only intuit the existence of their own mind through introspection, and no one has direct access to the mind of another. It is typically assumed that others have minds analogous to one's own, and this assumption is based on the reciprocal, social interaction, as observed in joint attention, the functional use of language, and the understanding of others' emotions and actions. Having 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 of—and thus be used to explain and predict—the behavior of others. 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'. 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 that requires social and other experience over many years for its full development. Different people may develop more, or less, effective theory of mind. 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. 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. While empathy is known as emotional perspective-taking, theory of mind is defined as cognitive perspective-taking. 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 Guy Woodruff's paper, 'Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?'. 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 through established relations. Contemporary discussions of Theory of Mind have their roots in philosophical debate—most broadly, from the time of Descartes' Second Meditation, which set the groundwork for considering the science of the mind. Most prominent recently are two contrasting approaches in the philosophical literature, to theory of mind: theory-theory and simulation theory. The theory-theorist imagines a veritable theory—'folk psychology'—used to reason about others' minds. The theory is developed automatically and innately, though instantiated through social interactions. It is also closely related to person perception and attribution theory from social psychology. The intuitive assumption that others are minded is an apparent tendency we all share. We anthropomorphize non-human animals, inanimate objects, and even natural phenomena. Daniel Dennett referred to this tendency as taking an 'intentional stance' toward things: we assume they have intentions, to help predict future behavior. However, there is an important distinction between taking an 'intentional stance' toward something and entering a 'shared world' with it. The intentional stance is a detached and functional theory we resort to during interpersonal interactions. A shared world is directly perceived and its existence structures reality itself for the perceiver. It is not just automatically applied to perception; it in many ways constitutes perception. The philosophical roots of the relational frame theory (RFT) account of Theory of Mind arise from contextual psychology and refer to the study of organisms (both human and non-human) interacting in and with a historical and current situational context. It is an approach based on contextualism, a philosophy in which any event is interpreted as an ongoing act inseparable from its current and historical context and in which a radically functional approach to truth and meaning is adopted. As a variant of contextualism, RFT focuses on the construction of practical, scientific knowledge. This scientific form of contextual psychology is virtually synonymous with the philosophy of operant psychology.

[ "Cognition", "Mind-blindness", "Faux pas", "Metarepresentation", "mental state attribution", "Premack's principle" ]
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