Theory of Mind and the Self
by:
Francesca Happe
Group 5:
Hans, Joey, Sumanth, Tim
Outline
Theory of mind and the self
Theory of own mind and theory of
other minds
Autism-a disorder of “Theory of
Mind”
fMRI studies of Theory of Mind and
self-reflection
What is ToM?
• Theory of mind refers to the everyday ability
to attribute independent mental states to self
and others in order to predict or explain
behavior
• These thoughts are normal for social
interaction:
– Example: we make sense of people’s behavior via
belief-desire psychology
• It’s easy to explain why Jon will carry an umbrella with
him, because believes it will rain and wants to stay dry
Cognitive Processes of ToM
• Some favor a more general explanation
– Simulation, general theory building
• Others argue for the necessity of a dedicated
cognitive mechanism
– Innate mechanism: supported by a relative lack of
normal individual difference or cross-cultural
variation, and an acquisition of ToM early in
childhood
– They also mention that even though it is innate, it
needs triggering input, like social interactions
Testing ToM
• The litmus test
– Attributing false beliefs
– Where prediction and explanation of action
cannot be based simply on the state of the
world
• To pass the test, one must keep
particular beliefs of another person
separate from their own beliefs
Testing Continued
• Children are tested at only 3-4 and older
due to the high verbal and executive
task demands
• Sally-Anne Task
– A location change task
• Smarties Task
– A content change task
Theory of Own Mind and
Theory of Other Mind
• Are the same mechanisms involved for
ToM and ToOM?
• There are different input channels
– But it is crucial to distinguish mental states
from representations of reality
– Keeping reality separate from belief
Theory of Other’s Minds
• For example: it’s necessary to distinguish the
represenations of the reality that “there is a
pencil in the tube” from the representation of
belief that, I “thought there are sweets in the
tube”
• From here we can postulate that the same
mechanism involved in keeping mental states
separate from reality does not change
depending if these states are you “own”
states or others’ states
Leslie (1987)
• He suggested that understanding of
pretense in infancy demonstrates the
availability of a special form of
representation for mental states
– He describes that there is a separation
between first-order representations and
meta-representations of real world states
• Meta-representation is necessary to
attribute mental states
ToOM
• Underlying our social understanding
must be representations that capture
who is thinking what and in what sense
they are thinking it
• When children are able to report their
mental state, they are also able to
report the mental states of others
Autism
• Autistic children seem to lack the ability
to attribute mental states
• These children also lack pretend play
– This observation led researchers to believe
meta-representation may be impaired and
cannot conceptualize mental states; thus
ToM deficits
Autism
• It is important to note that these
individuals do not lack mental states,
but are unable to reflect on their own
mental states.
• Asperger Syndrome are almost as good
as controls when it comes to the more
basic theory of mind tasks.
Autism
• Baron-Cohen (1993)
• Method:
– 2 groups
– 16 (high functioning + ASP)
– 16 (controls)
– Matched gender/age
– Basically a fill in the last box of a comic exp
Baron-Cohen Results
• A character intention (CI) condition
• A physical causality (PC)
• The ASP did much better in the PC condition
than in the CI condition. (p<0.001)
• ASP did as well as controls in the false-belief
tasks.
Autism and ToM
• It is easy to study lack of ToM regarding
other peoples mindstates.
• However, it is hard to evaluate in
experimental situations the inability of
autistics to know their own mindstate.
• What kind of experiments can you do in
the future?
Weak Central Coherence
Theory
The limited ability to see the context and
the big picture.
The theory tries to explain why Autistics
have skills in some areas.
The contention is that Autistics may not
see the bigger picture but they see
details pretty well.
Results
Results
Amygdala
Frontal Lobe
-Emotional Learning
-Planning
-Problem with this
-Working Memory
experiment
-Binding
Anterior Cingulate
-Interpreter?
-NOT lit up with autistic people
Results
1) The same areas activated when subjects
reflected on their own inner states
-there is a overlap of brain networks
2) Baseline minds are introspective
3) Areas of ToM that are activated were not the
same areas where mirror neurons are
typically found.
Where To Go From Here
What else can we find out?
-Look for people with brain lesions
-Find individuals who can report on own
mental states but not others
-vice versa
Where To Go From Here
Why do we have a ToM?
-Fitness Advantages
-Evolved from humans being social
creatures
-Do animals have ToM?
-Learning
Where To Go From Here
Does ToM always keep going?
-ToM gets more accurate the more
social situations we are placed in
-Why old people are senile?
-Is there a plateau?
Where To Go From Here
Is ToM innate? Is ToOM innate?
Which came first?