Conclusion: Models and Processes

Lecturer: Stephen A. Butterfill

Combining minimal theory of mind with a dual-process theory allows us to offer tentative answers to the mindreading puzzles.

Slides

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Notes

In attempting to understand the ontogentic development of mindreading, we have been confronted with, and attempted to answer, two puzzles:

1. How do observations about tracking support conclusions about models?
2. Why are there dissociations in nonhuman apes’, human infants’ and human adults’ performance on belief-tracking tasks?

The proposed answers are:

1. Using the method of signature limits (conjectures about models generate predictions about otherwise unexpected patterns of failure in tracking; see Signature Limits).
2. Because there are multiple kinds of belief-tracking process, which (i) rely on disinct models of minds and actions; and (ii) have different influences on responses (see A Dual Process Theory of Mindreading).

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