Theory of Mind and the Self by: Francesca Happe

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Theory of Mind and the SelfbyFrancesca Happe

• Group 5
• Hans, Joey, Sumanth, Tim

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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
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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 peoples behavior via
  belief-desire psychology
• Its easy to explain why Jon will carry an
  umbrella with him, because believes it will rain
  and wants to stay dry

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Theory of Others Minds

• For example its 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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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. (plt0.001)
• ASP did as well as controls in the false-belief
  tasks.

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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?

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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.

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Results
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Results

• Frontal Lobe
• -Planning
• -Working Memory
• -Binding
• -Interpreter?

Amygdala -Emotional Learning -Problem with this
experiment
Anterior Cingulate -NOT lit up with autistic
people
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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.

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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

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Where To Go From Here

• Why do we have a ToM?
• -Fitness Advantages
• -Evolved from humans being social creatures
• -Do animals have ToM?
• -Learning

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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?

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Where To Go From Here

• Is ToM innate? Is ToOM innate?
• Which came first?