Theory of Mind

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Theory of Mind

·December 26, 2022·4 min read

Females on Average Perform Better Than Males on a ‘Theory of Mind’ Test Across 57 Countries

A new study of over 300,000 people that spans 57 countries reveals women are, on average, more empathetic than males. Consistent across all age groups and most nationalities, women tend to score higher on tests of cognitive empathy, or "theory of mind" than males.

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·December 17, 2022·5 min read

What Pretend Play Tells Us About Social Cognition

By the age of two, most children are able to embark on pretend play and adopt a perspective that does not fit reality. This enables children to develop the ability to attribute perspective to others that they don't share. Findings suggest the ability to adopt perspectives, an important aspect of developing social cognition and the attribution of mental state, is already present in young children.

Autism Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·December 8, 2022·4 min read

The Idea That Mind and Body Are Separate Is Natural, for Neurotypical People

Those on the autism spectrum are more likely to consider the body and mind to be one, while those not on the autism spectrum are more likely to believe the body and the mind are separate entities.

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·December 8, 2021·3 min read

Ways to Help Children Learn Forgiveness

Children are more likely to forgive wrongdoers who apologize, especially if the offender is in their "in-group", and the upset child possesses advanced Theory of Mind skills.

This diagram shows how the brain processes visual information.

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·November 1, 2021·4 min read

Recognizing Familiar Faces Relies on a Neural Code Shared Across Brains

Researchers report that within the visual processing areas, information about a personally familiar or visually familiar face is shared across the brains of those with the same friends or acquaintances. Additionally, shared information about personally familiar faces extends to areas of the brain implicated in social processing, suggesting there is shared social information across the brain.

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·September 28, 2021·8 min read

Children Do Not Understand Concept of Others Having False Beliefs Until Age 6 or 7

Young children do not understand true or false belief, instead, they rely on perceptual access reasoning. The findings upend the longstanding belief that theory of mind is acquired by age four.

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Featured Psychology

·July 12, 2021·6 min read

You Can Snuggle Wolf Pups All You Want, They Still Won’t ‘Get’ You Quite Like Your Dog

After 14,000 years of domestication, dogs have an edge in both cognition and people-reading skills over wolves.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 19, 2021·5 min read

A Father’s Parenting Style Could Be Predicted in Advance of His Child’s Birth

Expectant fathers with higher levels of brain activation and oxytocin later endorsed a more "child-led" empathetic style of parenting once their child was born.

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Autism Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 3, 2021·5 min read

Bilingualism as a Natural Therapy for Autistic Children

Bilingualism in children on the autism spectrum partly makes up for deficits in theory of mind and executive function, a new study reports.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·February 14, 2021·4 min read

Women Better at Reading Minds Than Men

New study reveals women are better at mentalizing and picking up on subtle behavioral cues of others than men.

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·September 2, 2020·4 min read

Autism May Not Be Tied to Mindblindness

Reassessing years of research on Theory of Mind in autism, researchers argue the brains of those with ASD may be able to grasp what others think but may have a more difficult time processing the degree to which others think differently from themselves.

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·March 9, 2020·3 min read

The brain has two systems for thinking about others’ thoughts

Study reveals two different brain structures are implicated in implicit and explicit theory of mind, and both regions mature at different ages to fulfill their function. The supramarginal gyrus matures earlier, enabling theory of mind to occur slightly earlier than believed. Full ability for theory of mind occurs at age four when the temporoparietal junction matures.

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