Chapter 8 - Theory of Mind

Question 1

Automatic empathy

Answer 1

A social perceiver unwittingly taking on the internal state of another person, usually because of mimicking the person’s expressive behavior and thereby feeling the expressed emotion.

Question 2

False-belief test

Answer 2

An experimental procedure that assesses whether a perceiver recognizes that another person has a false belief - a belief that contradicts reality.

Question 3

Folk explanations of behavior

Answer 3

People’s natural explanations for why somebody did something, felt something, etc. (differing substantially for unintentional and intentional behaviors).

Question 4

Intention

Answer 4

An agent’s mental state of committing to perform an action that the agent believes will bring about a desired outcome.

Question 5

Intentionality

Answer 5

The quality of an agent’s performing a behavior intentionally - that is, with skill and awareness and executing an intention (which is in turn based on a desire and relevant beliefs).

Question 6

Joint attention

Answer 6

Two people attending to the same object and being aware that they both are attending to it.Mi

Question 7

Mimicry

Answer 7

Copying others’ behavior, usually without awareness.

Question 8

Mirror neurons

Answer 8

Neurons identified in monkey brains that fire both when the monkey performs a certain action and when it perceives another agent performing that action.

Question 9

Projection

Answer 9

A social perceiver’s assumption that the other person wants, knows, or feels the same as the perceiver wants, knows, or feels.

Question 10

Simulation

Answer 10

The process of representing the other person’s mental state.

Question 11

Synchrony

Answer 11

Two people displaying the same behaviors or having the same internal states (typically because of mutual mimicry).

Question 12

Theory of mind

Answer 12

The human capacity to understand minds, a capacity that is made up of a collection of concepts (e.g., agent, intentionality) and processes (e.g., goal detection, imitation, empathy, perspective taking).

Question 13

Visual perspective taking

Answer 13

Can refer to visual perspective taking (perceiving something from another person’s spatial vantage point) or more generally to effortful mental state inference (trying to infer the other person’s thoughts, desires, emotions).