Title: Theory of mind: The developing story of belief-desire reasoning

Speaker: Alan M. Leslie ( Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Rutgers University )

Time: June 28 2013 (Fri) 12:00-

Venue: The philosophy building, room 103

Host: Su Yangjie

Abstract:  From a new and obscure topic 25 years ago, “theory of mind” has become a major topic across a number of fields of research and the term has even entered every day speech (well, almost). Although “theory of mind” is much broader than thinking about beliefs and desires, belief-desire reasoning plays a central role in our ability to interpret and predict the behavior of other people. The Sally and Anne false belief task has been and remains a fruitful tool with which to probe the underlying cognitive mechanisms of “theory of mind” and their disorders. Recent non-verbal versions of the Sally and Anne task are underscoring that the well-known ‘three to four years shift’ from failing to passing is only one of a number of developmental changes between infancy and adulthood. These new findings provide strong support for a very early appearing competence and new impetus to investigate the existence and nature of a Theory of Mind Mechanism (ToMM) in the brain. ToMM grows, probably epigenetically, into the

young brain becoming functional during the first two or three years of life. This process rolls out the M-representation and associated principles of operation. These can be thought of as forming the basics of propositional-attitude reasoning in the form of rational priors. One of these principles, the 'True Belief default', creates performance demands that in some circumstances are not satisfied, even in adults. I propose that ToMM forms the motivating neural force behind our uniquely human, overriding interest in the otherwise invisible inner lives of other people.