The closing of the theory of mind: A critique of perspective-taking
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THEORETICAL REVIEW
The closing of the theory of mind: A critique of perspective-taking Geoff G. Cole 1 & Abbie C. Millett 1
# The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2019
Abstract Theory of mind (ToM) is defined as the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others and is often said to be one of the cornerstones of efficient social interaction. In recent years, a number of authors have suggested that one particular ToM process occurs spontaneously in that it is rapid and outside of conscious control. This work has argued that humans efficiently compute the visual perspective of other individuals. In this article, we present a critique of this notion both on empirical and theoretical grounds. We argue that the experiments and paradigms that purportedly demonstrate spontaneous perspective-taking have not as yet convincingly demonstrated the existence of such a phenomenon. We also suggest that it is not possible to represent the percept of another person, spontaneous or otherwise. Indeed, the perspective-taking field has suggested that humans can represent the visual experience of others. That is, going beyond assuming that we can represent another’s viewpoint in anything other than symbolic form. In this sense, the field suffers from the same problem that afflicted the “pictorial” theory in the mental imagery debate. In the last section we present a number of experiments designed to provide a more thorough assessment of whether humans can indeed represent the visual experience of others. Keywords Automaticity . Gaze cueing . Mental imagery . Mental rotation . Perspective-taking . Social cognition . Theory of mind . Visual cognition
In 1978, Premack and Woodruff published a seminal paper in which they emphasized the importance of knowing what other individuals know. They referred to this as “theory of mind” (ToM) and defined it as the ability to impute mental states to oneself and others (Premack & Woodruff, 1978). Although their paper was specifically concerned with the chimpanzee, the idea quickly became applied to humans, in particular, to the developing child (e.g., Wimmer & Perner, 1983). The ToM notion has now been incorporated within many aspects of cognition (e.g., decision-making; Torralva et al., 2007). One of the most recent applications has been within visual cognition. Samson, Apperly, Braithwaite, Andrews, and Bodley Scott (2010) argued that one particular aspect of ToM is computed spontaneously in that it occurs without conscious control. Specifically, the authors suggested that humans effortlessly represent the viewpoint of individuals we are currently interacting with, so-called altercentric intrusion. By
viewpoint, Samson et al. meant visual perspective, as opposed to what a person may think or an attitude they may have. The present article presents a critique of the altercentric intrusion notion and the idea of perspective-taking more broadly. We divide our argument into four sections. In the first, we review the work that has been undertaken in relation to the spontaneous perspective-taking cl
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