Abstract
In the last 15 years, Theory of Mind research has been revolutionized by the development of new implicit tasks. Such tasks aim at tapping children’s and adults’ uninstructed, largely automatic mental state ascription, indicated in spontaneous looking behavior when observing agents who act on the basis of false beliefs. Studies with anticipatory looking, in particular, have suggested that basic ToM capacities operate from very early in life and remain in unconscious operation throughout the lifespan. Recently, however, systematic replication attempts of anticipatory looking measures have yielded a complex and puzzling mixture of successful, partial and non-replications. The present study aimed at shedding light on the question whether there is a system to this pattern. More specifically, in a set of three preregistered experiments, it was tested whether those conditions that could previously be replicated and those that could not differ in crucial conceptual respects such that the former do not strictly require ToM whereas the latter do. This was tested by the implementation of novel control conditions. The results were complex. There was generally no unambiguous evidence for reliable spontaneous ToM and no effect of the number of passed familiarization trials. Neither was there any unambiguous evidence that the previous mixed patterns of (non-)replications could be explained (away) by the sub-mentalizing account tested in the new control conditions. The empirical situation remains puzzling, and the question whether there is some such thing as implicit and spontaneous ToM remains to be clarified.
Highlights
Theory of Mind, the ability to ascribe beliefs, desires and other mental states to others and ourselves, has traditionally been considered to develop between the ages of 3 and 5 years, depending on cultural and linguistic experience and central cognitive resources [1,2]
Binomial tests showed that the first saccade was not significantly more often directed to either position in the FB1 condition (7 out of 12, i.e. 58% to position 2, p = .774, BF10 = 0.643), indicating no preference for the last object or belief-congruent location, the same applies to the FB2 condition (5 out of 7, i.e. 71% to position 1, p = .453, BF10 = 0.965), indicating no preference for the belief congruent location, and the TB1 condition (9 out of 16, i.e. 56% to position 2, p = .804, BF10 = 0.571), indicating no preference for the last object location
Binomial tests showed that the first saccade was not significantly more often directed to either position in the FB1 condition (4 out of 4, i.e. 100% to position 2, p = .125, BF10 = 1.900), indicating no preference for the last object or belief-congruent location, the same applies to the FB2 condition (3 out of 7, i.e. 43% to position 1, p = 1, BF10 = 0.701), indicating no preference for the belief-congruent location, and the TB1 condition (6 out of 8, i.e. 75% to position 2, p = .289, BF10 = 1.179), indicating no preference for the last object location
Summary
Theory of Mind, the ability to ascribe beliefs, desires and other mental states to others and ourselves, has traditionally been considered to develop between the ages of 3 and 5 years, depending on cultural and linguistic experience and central cognitive resources [1,2]. New findings from the last 15 years, have fundamentally challenged this picture and revolutionized the field. These findings stem from implicit Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks that operate without direct verbal measures or instruction. The evidence from studies with such tasks indicates that basic forms of ToM develop very early and are to be found even in infants.
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