Theory of Mind

In developmental psychology, theory of mind (ToM) refers to the normative capacity for humans to understand the intentions of another person. With early aspects of ToM apparent in 3- to 4-year-olds, the mind begins to understand that one's own knowledge and intentions differ from those of other people. As ToM becomes more sophisticated as the child becomes increasingly social, this cognitive ability is the first step in associating personal characterizations of another person's self: their patterns of goal-directed behavior and general autonomous agency. These ToM identity files for others are then followed with the emerging adolescent's own social skill of being able to display a personal identity that is a calculated plan to represent a chosen set of characterizations. Thus, the foundation of identity involves representing in your mind an expectation for how another person will perceive your chosen characterizations. Within this research, identity does not exist to express basic innate beliefs about one's own self, but rather, it primarily functions as a social skill to importantly gain more social resources. This aspect of cognition is also related to evolutionary psychology in that it is a second phylogenetic step (after primary consciousness) toward advanced neurological identity. In an evolutionary model, ToM emerged from the need to display trustworthiness to one's social group. ToM became increasingly sophisticated and adaptive as humans could reasonably predict the desires (agency) of other group members, especially whether they are advantageous or harmful regarding both the self and the collective good of the group.

The term was originally coined by David Premack and Guy Woodruff in 1978 at the University of Pennsylvania to illustrate how chimpanzees infer the mental status of their fellow chimpanzees and was broadly understood as the ability to attribute mental states, intents, desires, and knowledge to oneself and others. Grounded in the neurosciences is an innate potential cognitive process in humans, which enables humans to see others as intentional agents, to develop a “theory” about another person's mind, different from our own. For one modern and basic example, consider the experience of driving behind another driver whose turn signal is on for an extended time. With ToM, you predict that the first driver is not planning to turn and is unaware that the turn signal is activated. Of course, ToM may be incorrect. The driver may be experiencing trouble and have the caution lights on with one side of the signal broken, or the first driver may activate a turn signal [Page 831]long before most other drivers would choose. At other times, ToM also stimulates not one but a set of cognitive scenarios in which a person will hold to a group of interpretations until further information is gained. For example, a couple walks out of the restaurant they just dined in, the wife turns and runs back in. The husband wonders why: Maybe his wife was looking for something she wanted to retrieve, and she thought it was in the restaurant. Maybe his wife saw someone familiar in the restaurant, and wanted to say hello to that person. Maybe his wife intended to grab another beverage, but in her haste to leave the restaurant, she forgot. In knowing that his wife has a mind and that her behavior has purpose, the husband is using ToM.

...