What is the study of mental processes that include determining the characteristics and properties of the mind and how it operates?

1. Theories
2. Theory of Mind

How the Theory of Mind Helps Us Understand Others

By Charlotte Ruhl, published Aug 07, 2020

Take-home Messages

• Theory of mind [ToM] is the ability to attribute mental states to ourselves and others, serving as one of the foundational elements for social interaction.
• Having a theory of mind is important as it provides the ability to predict and interpret the behavior of others.
• During infancy and early childhood, children learn the early skills that they’ll need to develop their theory of mind later on, such as paying attention to people and copying them.
• The traditional test for theory of mind is a false-belief task, used to assess a child’s understanding that other people can have beliefs about the world which contrast with reality.
• Countless empirical studies reveal that this ability develops in toddlers as young as 15 months old and deteriorates with age. Research also demonstrates this ability in some of our closest relatives: apes.
• Some individuals with autism, Asperger’s, schizophrenia, depression, or social anxiety disorder exhibit a deficit in theory of mind and perform poorly on related tasks.

Theory of mind is the ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, and knowledge — to ourselves and others.

“As humans we assume that others want, think, believe and the like, and thereby infer states that are not directly observable, using these states anticipatorily, to predict the behavior of others as well as our own. These inferences, which amount to a theory of mind, are to our knowledge, universal in human adults” [Premack & Woodruff, 1978].

Having a theory of mind allows us to understand that others have unique beliefs and desires that are different from our own, enabling us to engage in daily social interaction as we interpret the mental states and infer the behaviors of those around us [Premack & Woodruff, 1978].

After its first identification in 1978, a large body of research in this field has accumulated, studying the developmental pathway, neural basis, and deficits of the theory of mind.

How Does Theory of Mind Develop?

We aren’t born immediately knowing that others have unique beliefs and desires that are unique from our own. It turns out that there are several developmental precursors [or skills] that infants need to develop their theory of mind later on Westby & Robinson, 2014].

These skills include the ability to comprehend the concept of attention, understand the intentions of others, and the ability to imitate others are all rungs on the ladder you must climb before reaching the platform of theory of mind.

Other developmental precursors necessary of theory of mind to develop include [i] pretending to be someone else [like a doctor or a cashier]; [ii] understanding the causes and consequences of emotions; and [iii] understanding ther people and have different likes/dislikes.

According to psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen, attention is one of the first underlying precursors to the development of a fully-fledged theory of mind.

This involves recognizing that seeing is not merely looking, but rather we can selectively direct our attention to specific objects and people [Baron-Cohen, 1991]. A key example of this attention is joint attention.

Joint attention occurs when two people direct their attention towards the same thing of interest – often doing via pointing so as to direct another’s attention to the same source.

When infants understand this gesture, they are simultaneously processing another person’s mental state, recognizing that this object is something that another person thinks is of interest [Baron-Cohen, 1991], thus illustrating the beginning phases of the theory of mind.

A second core component that contributes to the development of the theory of mind is that of intentionality, or the understanding that others’ actions are goal-directed and arise out of unique beliefs and desires, as defined by philosopher Daniel Dennett [1983].

Toddlers as young as 2 years old exhibit an understanding of intentionality [Luchkina et al., 2018] as do chimpanzees and orangutans [Call & Tomasello, 1998].

To understand that people act in a way that is motivated by their desires [for example, I am hungry so I will reach for that apple] is to understand that other people have their own desires [she must be hungry], thus demonstrating a theory of mind, or attributing mental states to others.

Imitating others is a third building block of theory of mind. The ability to imitate others is to recognize recognizing that others have their own beliefs and desires.

For example, bridging attention and intentionality, imitation can result when a child realizes that others direct their attention [to an object, etc.] and do so intentionally [motivated by goal-directed behavior].

Internalizing these two concepts, the child then engages in imitation and may direct his or her eyes towards that specific object or scene.

However, there is some pushback that imitation is not as much of a crucial precursor for theory of mind. A 2000 longitudinal study found that the infants’ imitation scores were not associated with later theory of mind ability [Charman, 2000].

Stages of Theory of Mind

Between ages 4-5, children really start to think about others’ thoughts and feelings, and this is when true theory of mind emerges. The actual development of the theory of mind generally follows an agreed-upon sequence of steps [Wellman, 2004; Wellman & Peterson, 2012]:

• Understanding “wanting”: The first step is the realization that others have diverse desires, and to get what they want, people act in different ways.
• Understanding “thinking”: The second step is the runderstanding that others also have diverse beliefs about the same thing, and that people’s actions are based on what they think is going to happen.
• Understanding that “seeing leads to knowing”: The third stage is recognizing that others have different knowledge access, and if someone hasn’t seen something, they will need extra information to understand.
• Understanding “false-beliefs”: The forth stage is being aware of the fact that others may have false-beliefs that differ from reality.
• Understanding “hidden feelings”: The final stage is being aware that other people can hide their emotions, and can feel a different emotion from the one they display.

Cultural Differences

While these developmental stages seem to be universal across demographic groups in laying the groundwork for the formation of theory of mind, different cultures place varying levels of emphasis on each of the five skills, causing some to be developed later than others.

In other words, cultural importance plays a role in determining the specific order in which these five milestones are cemented into the mind of a toddler.

That is, those that are more valued tend to be developed before those that are less so [and this makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, too].

For example, in individualistic cultures, such as the U.S., a greater emphasis is placed on the ability to recognize that others have different opinions and beliefs. However, in more collectivistic cultures such as China, this skill is not as valued and as a result might not develop until later [Shahaeian, 2011].

A study conducted by developmental psychologist Ameneh Shahaeian and colleagues found that for Iranian children, knowledge access was understood earlier than diverse beliefs, aligning with this collectivist culture’s emphasis on filial respect and knowledge acquisition [Shahaeian, 2011].

Whereas with Australian participants, who come from a more individualist culture, knowledge access was understood after comprehending that others have diverse beliefs.

Notably, the researchers found that there was no significant cross-cultural difference in overall rates of theory of mind mastery [Shahaeian, 2011], indicating that individuals of all cultures are able to master this skill [Callaghan et al., 2005] despite following different developmental pathways to do so.

Most theory of mind studies are conducted with toddlers and infants. Because this is a developmental concept, researchers are concerned with the age at which individuals adopt a theory of mind.

Most studies that measure theory of mind rely on a false-belief task.

The traditional test for theory of mind is a false-belief task. A false-belief task is commonly used in child development research to assess a child’s understanding that other people can have beliefs about the world which are not true. The false-belief task allows researchers to distinguish unambiguously between the child’s [true] belief and the child’s awareness of someone else’s different [false] belief [Dennett, 1978].

First-order false-belief tasks assess the realization that it is possible to hold false-beliefs about real events in the world. An example of a commonly used first-order false-belief task is the "Unexpected contents", or “Smarties” task.

Experimenters ask children to predict another child’s perception about the contents of a box that looks as though it holds a candy called "Smarties" [that actually includes a pencil] [Gopnik & Astington, 1988]. First-order false-belief tasks involve attribution about other’s false-belief with regard to real events.