scholarly journals Social inferences from physical evidence via Bayesian event reconstruction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lopez-Brau ◽  
Joseph Kwon ◽  
Julian Jara-Ettinger
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Mental Event ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Physical Evidence ◽  
Event Reconstruction ◽  
Quantitative Accuracy ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Social Inferences

Human Theory of Mind is typically associated with the ability to infer mental states from observed behavior. In many cases, however, people can also infer the mental states of agents whose behavior they cannot see, based on the physical evidence left behind. We hypothesized that this capacity is supported by a form of mental event reconstruction. Under this account, observers derive social inferences by reconstructing the agents' behavior, based on the physical evidence that revealed their presence. We present a computational model of this idea, embedded in a Bayesian framework for action understanding, and show that its predictions match human inferences with high quantitative accuracy. Our results shed light on how people infer others' mental states from indirect physical evidence and on people's ability to extract social information from the physical world.

Considering Others’ Mental States Causally Increases Feelings of Social Bonding and Information Sharing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Baek ◽  
Diana Tamir ◽  
Emily B. Falk
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Health News ◽  
Brain Behavior ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Share Information ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Mentalizing System

Information sharing is a ubiquitous social behavior. What causes people to share? Mentalizing, or considering the mental states of other people, has been theorized to play a central role in information sharing, with higher activity in the brain’s mentalizing system associated with increased likelihood to share information. In line with this theory, we present novel evidence that mentalizing causally increases information sharing. In three pre-registered studies (n = 400, 840, and 3500 participants), participants who were instructed to consider the mental states of potential information receivers indicated higher likelihood to share health news compared to a control condition where they were asked to reflect on the content of the article. Certain kinds of mentalizing were particularly effective; in particular, considering receivers’ emotional and positive mental states, led to the greatest increase in likelihood to share. The relationship between mentalizing and sharing was mediated by feelings of closeness with potential receivers. Mentalizing increased feelings of connectedness to potential receivers, and in turn, increased likelihood of information sharing. Considering receivers’ emotional, positive, and inward-focused mental states was most effective at driving participants to feel closer with potential receivers and increase sharing. Data provide evidence for a causal relationship between mentalizing and information sharing and provide insight about the mechanism linking mentalizing and sharing. Taken together, these results advance theories of information sharing and shed light on previously observed brain-behavior relationships.

Intentionality of movement: Mirror neuron system and theory of mind

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 2113-2113 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Borghi ◽  
F. Binkofski
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Mirror Neuron System ◽  
Mirror Neuron ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Imaging Studies ◽  
Motor Representation ◽  
Neuron System ◽  
State Of Mind ◽  
Additional Explanation

The ability to understand intentions of actions performed by others is one of the prerequisites for social interaction. This ability has been attributed to our capacity to mentalize others’ behaviour, by simulating or predicting their mental states that would cause that behaviour and make it comprehensible. Brain imaging studies revealed the so called “mentalizng network” including the pSTS/TPJ, the temporal poles and the medial prefrontal cortex. This network gets constantly activated anytime we try to take the perspective of others or try to simulate their state of mind. On the other hand the discovery of mirror neurons has provided an additional explanation for understanding of the content of actions. The functional properties of these neurons point out that action understanding is primarily based on a mechanism that directly matches the sensory representation of perceived actions with one's own motor representation of the same actions. We provide evidence that both systems interact closely during the processing of intentionality of actions. Thus mentalizing is not the only form of intentional understanding and motor and intentional components of action are closely interwoven. Both systems play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

scholarly journals How Many Concepts of Intentionality?

Studia Humana ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Andrzej Dąbrowski
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Current Discussion ◽  
The World

Abstract The current discussion of the intentionality nature has become more sophisticated and complex. In this paper I will delineate a number of approaches to intentionality in contemporary philosophy: 1 mentalistic; 2 semantic / linguistic; 3 pragmatic; 4 somatic; 5 and naturalistic. Although philosophers identify and analyse many concepts of intentionality, from the author point of view, there is only one intentionality: mentalistic intentionality (conscious mental states are intentional). Furthermore, there are the pre-intentionality in the physical world and the meta-intentionality (or the derived intentionality) in the world of culture.

On the Acquisition of Attitude Verbs

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Hacquard ◽  
Jeffrey Lidz
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Attitude Verbs ◽  
Internal Mental States

Attitude verbs, such as think, want, and know, describe internal mental states that leave few cues as to their meanings in the physical world. Consequently, their acquisition requires learners to draw from indirect evidence stemming from the linguistic and conversational contexts in which they occur. This provides us a unique opportunity to probe the linguistic and cognitive abilities that children deploy in acquiring these words. Through a few case studies, we show how children make use of syntactic and pragmatic cues to figure out attitude verb meanings and how their successes, and even their mistakes, reveal remarkable conceptual, linguistic, and pragmatic sophistication. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Repressive Approach Incustoms Crimes

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Ghafour Khoeini ◽  
Ali Reza Shekarbeigi
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Policy ◽  
Penal System ◽  
Action Understanding ◽  
Government Revenue ◽  
Import And Export ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Judicial Systems

Customs regulations determined in each country, regarding monitoring the import and export of goods and payment of customs duties are a critical source of government revenue. Naturally, people regarding economic gains as well as import and export of prohibited goods, the customs regulations are violated. So initially it is necessary to define the recognition and awareness of customs offenses. Then check the rules and regulations relating to customs matters and deal with violations of customs law can shed light on these crimes, criminal policy governing the use of the penal system and the principles and techniques of successful experiences of other judicial systems, to set a modern criminal policy, be consistent and purposeful action. Understanding the elements and items of the crime are also useful in the fight against this criminal phenomenon.

scholarly journals News Authorship and News Sources: Impacts on Environmental Coverage in The Nigerian Press

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Ogadimma C. Emenyeonu ◽  
Bahtiar Mohamad
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Information ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Investigative Reporting ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Environmental News ◽  
Official Sources ◽  
Shed Light

<em><em>This study examines the impacts of news authorship and news sources on environmental coverage in the Nigerian press to shed light on the roles they play in news construction. The study finds that journalists in conjunction with policy makers are the catalyst for environmental information, whereas citizens who are pivotal in creating relevant public opinion on environmental issues are left behind. The study reveals that investigative reporting lacks in environmental coverage because most coverage are events driven which explains why environmental news is reported as straight news and as such journalists rely heavily on official sources rather than subsidiary sources. The study opines that for proper environmental coverage, journalists must choose sources from both main and subsidiary actors and revert to proactive, investigative and interpretive reporting so as to make environmental stories relatable to the intended audiences.</em></em>

scholarly journals THE TOMB OF IPI: 3D DOCUMENTATION IN A MIDDLE KINGDOM THEBAN NECROPOLIS (EGYPT, 2000 BCE)

2019 ◽  
Vol XLII-2/W9 ◽  
pp. 319-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Echeverría ◽  
F. Celis ◽  
A. Morales ◽  
F. da Casa
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Middle Kingdom ◽  
Swiss Cheese ◽  
Major Purpose ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
3D Documentation ◽  
Theban Necropolis ◽  
Shed Light

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Due to the multiplicity of tombs in the area and the work of early archaeologists in Deir el-Bahari, the necropolis resembles a Swiss cheese. In addition, most of these monuments and their remains (coffin fragments, human remains, subsidiary structures) were left unpublished. A century later, the major purpose of the Middle Kingdom Theban Project of University of Alcala (MKTP-UAH) –led by the moudir (i.e. “director” in Arabic) Antonio Morales– is to document, understand, and publish all these monuments and findings left behind by previous expeditions. Such publications will shed light not only on the necropolis and owners of the monuments, but will also help to understand the beginning of the so-called Middle Kingdom, a golden age of the pharaonic period with a significant and impressive architecture. In fact, most of archaeologists take these tombs as patterns for this golden age, without taking into consideration that we do not know much about them.</p>

scholarly journals Computations of confidence are modulated by mentalizing ability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa van der Plas ◽  
David Mason ◽  
Lucy Anne Livingston ◽  
Jillian Craigie ◽  
Francesca Happé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Population Sample ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
General Population Sample ◽  
Choice Accuracy ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Shed Light

Do people have privileged and direct access to their own minds, or do we infer our own thoughts and feelings indirectly, as we would infer the mental states of others? In this study we shed light on this question by examining how mentalizing ability—the set of processes involved in understanding other people’s thoughts and feelings—relates to metacognitive efficiency—the ability to reflect on one’s own performance. In a general population sample (N = 477) we showed that mentalizing ability and self-reported socio-communicative skills are positively correlated with perceptual metacognitive efficiency, even after controlling for choice accuracy. By modelling the trial-by-trial formation of confidence we showed that mentalizing ability predicted the association between response times and confidence, suggesting those with better mentalizing ability were more sensitive to inferential cues to self-performance. In a second study we showed that both mentalizing and metacognitive efficiency were lower in autistic participants (N = 40) when compared with age, gender, IQ, and education-matched non-autistic participants. Together, our results suggest that the ability to understand other people’s minds predicts self-directed metacognition.

Analysis of Common Accident Reconstruction Operations

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Kimbrough
Keyword(s):  
Computer Simulation ◽  
Computer Programs ◽  
Accident Analysis ◽  
Accident Reconstruction ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Accident Investigation ◽  
Input Space ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Physical Evidence

Accidents occur when the circumstances (i.e. the inputs) leading up to an accident map through the physical processes involved, to produce an undesirable result, namely the accident (i.e., the outputs). What the accident reconstructionist has to work with is the evidence left behind, and he then strives to determine the circumstances that led to the accident, based upon that evidence. In accident investigation there is often a deficit of physical evidence, and it is impossible, based on the available physical evidence alone, to pinpoint the circumstances that led to the accident. In practice, computer programs are often used to run simulations to find a set (or sets) of circumstances that is consistent with the evidence, and then the discovered set (or sets) of circumstances is presented as the answer. But this approach ignores some important questions related to whether the mapping being used (e.g., the computer simulation) is invertible and whether the circumstances leading to the evidence can be identified in a unique way, or whether the mapping is not invertible and the most that can be achieved is to identify whole sets in the input space of circumstances that might have led to the accident. Analysis offers the tools to probe such questions.

Theory of Mind and Communication in Health and Risk Messaging

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Jeffrey Farrar ◽  
Yao Guan ◽  
Kaitlyn Erhardt
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Developmental Time ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Reduce Risk ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors

Humans live not only in a physical world but also in a mental world. Theory of mind reflects the understanding that the mind is comprised of different mental states, such as intentions, desires, and beliefs. This conception of the mind is a critical achievement in human development because it directly impacts effective communication and social interaction. It allows for the understanding of others’ behaviors by inferring their mental states. The formation of a theory of mind has been a central topic in psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy. It impacts related processes, such as communication skills, perspective-taking ability, and social cognition. Across the life span, the understanding of the mind becomes increasingly complex. Early in development, infants and toddlers can discern the intentions of others. Later, more sophisticated reasoning about the mental states of others becomes possible. For instance, the ability to follow and understand the recursive thought that “Sam believes, that Mary said, that Jose wanted . . .” develops. Additionally, within distinctive developmental time periods, people differ in their ability to take into account mental states. Once people’s beliefs, including their misconceptions, are identified, it is possible to generate effective communication strategies designed to teach, learn, and even reduce risk-taking behaviors.

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