What is "theory of the mind"?

[sidetrack]

Seriously when I wiki-ed it,it’s entry didn’t satisfy me with a short sentence or two.Anyone care to explain?.

 

[Sam_777]

The mind is a very complex organ created by GOD, so we will never fully understand it in our human form.

 

[RPRPsych]

Seriously when I wiki-ed it,it’s entry didn’t satisfy me with a short sentence or two.Anyone care to explain?.

If you mean “theory of mind” (also called “mentalization”), it’s quite simple: it’s the ability or skill to make inferences about another person’s mental state.

For example, by looking at a person and observing his behaviour, you can infer (with a good deal of certainty) that he’s angry.

We can also make more complex inferences, though they’re usually educated guesses; for example, looking at a couple interacting, you can infer that Mrs. X thinks that Mr. X is angry with her.

A simple test of theory of mind is the “Sally Anne” test: it involves showing the subject the story of two little girls (Sally and Anne). Sally keeps her doll in a basket, and leaves the room. Anne comes in, and puts it elsewhere (under the bed, say). Now the question asked to the subject is: If Sally comes in and looks for her doll (she hasn’t seen Anne’s antics) where will she look first?

A person with intact “theory of mind” skills (most of us) would say “in the basket” because that’s what is in Sally’s mind, even though we’ve seen Anne keep it elsewhere.

A person with autism (or certain sorts of brain damage) might say “under the bed”, because he cannot make inferences about Sally’s state of mind.

Of course, if you’re referring to philosophy of mind, or theories of the mind in general (dualism, functionalism, etc.) that would take at least 200 posts to thrash out, and we’d never get a full answer this side of Heaven.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

Seriously when I wiki-ed it,it’s entry didn’t satisfy me with a short sentence or two.Anyone care to explain?.

It is the model or system one uses for trying to understand or predict the thoughts and actions of another being.

 

[Michael19682]

Literally it sounds like a theory that is based on the thoughts of our higher nature, as opposed to one generated by the inclinations of the body. Paul’s letter to the Romans discusses it. But this would only be a tertiary or even quarternary definition.