Task instructions and implicit theory of mind. Schneider, D., Nott, Z. E., & Dux, P. E. Cognition, 133(1):43–47, 2014. doi abstract bibtex It has been hypothesized that humans are able to track other's mental states efficiently and without being conscious of doing so using their implicit theory of mind (iToM) system. However, while iToM appears to operate unconsciously recent work suggests it does draw on executive attentional resources (Schneider, Lam, Bayliss, & Dux, 2012) bringing into question whether iToM is engaged efficiently. Here, we examined other aspects relating to automatic processing: The extent to which the operation of iToM is controllable and how it is influenced by behavioral intentions. This was implemented by assessing how task instructions affect eye-movement patterns in a Sally-Anne false-belief task. One group of subjects was given no task instructions (No Instructions), another overtly judged the location of a ball a protagonist interacted with (Ball Tracking) and a third indicated the location consistent with the actor's belief about the ball's location (Belief Tracking). Despite different task goals, all groups' eye-movement patterns were consistent with belief analysis, and the No Instructions and Ball Tracking groups reported no explicit mentalizing when debriefed. These findings represent definitive evidence that humans implicitly track the belief states of others in an uncontrollable and unintentional manner.
@Article{Schneider2014,
author = {Schneider, Dana and Nott, Zoie E. and Dux, Paul E.},
journal = {Cognition},
title = {Task instructions and implicit theory of mind.},
year = {2014},
number = {1},
pages = {43--47},
volume = {133},
abstract = {It has been hypothesized that humans are able to track other's mental
states efficiently and without being conscious of doing so using
their implicit theory of mind (iToM) system. However, while iToM
appears to operate unconsciously recent work suggests it does draw
on executive attentional resources (Schneider, Lam, Bayliss, & Dux,
2012) bringing into question whether iToM is engaged efficiently.
Here, we examined other aspects relating to automatic processing:
The extent to which the operation of iToM is controllable and how
it is influenced by behavioral intentions. This was implemented by
assessing how task instructions affect eye-movement patterns in a
Sally-Anne false-belief task. One group of subjects was given no
task instructions (No Instructions), another overtly judged the location
of a ball a protagonist interacted with (Ball Tracking) and a third
indicated the location consistent with the actor's belief about the
ball's location (Belief Tracking). Despite different task goals,
all groups' eye-movement patterns were consistent with belief analysis,
and the No Instructions and Ball Tracking groups reported no explicit
mentalizing when debriefed. These findings represent definitive evidence
that humans implicitly track the belief states of others in an uncontrollable
and unintentional manner.},
doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2014.05.016},
institution = {School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: paul.e.dux@gmail.com.},
language = {eng},
medline-pst = {ppublish},
pmid = {24955887},
timestamp = {2014.11.18},
}
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