Human and Hunter Gatherers

People develop mindreading abilities when they start to understand others by having a cognitive theory of mind. Research evidence, children from the age of four begin to develop mindreading skills, psychologist control this by performing tasks such as the ‘Sally-Anne’ task and the ‘smarties’ task. However, arguments by psychologists define some children can pass visual perspective task from round the age of two and this demonstrates that children have some mindreading abilities following a developmental trajectory.

Jean Piaget’s sixty years of research is fundamental to our understanding of how children think. His systematic observational research method helps validate his cohesive theory. Originally trained as a biologist, Piaget began his psychological research after finding philosophy deficient in attempting to answered critical questions without experimental work. Jean Piaget’s Theories of Cognitive and Affective Development are a culmination of his life’s work and a characterization of his beliefs in structuralism, epistemology, and the biological construction of knowledge.

People understand each other using cognitive skills, an example of this is mindreading. Mindreading abilities also referred to as the theory of mind (ToM) is acknowledging that other people have mental states, such as understanding that others have desires, motives, beliefs and intentions (Hewson, 2015a). This is generally an essential, undemanding skill for social interaction. Thereby, this essay will evaluate how psychology has helped to explain how people understand each other by firstly, explaining how different aspects of ToM have been studied. Additionally, Heider and Simmel’s (1944) study of geometric shapes will be explored to demonstrate how people interpret other people’s behaviour, even in animation. Subsequently, Autism

According to Steven Pinker “Anyone who doesn’t believe in evolution is certainly not going to believe in the evolution of the mind, and anyone who believes in an immaterial soul is certainly not going to believe that thought and feeling consist of information processing in the tissues of the brain” (pg. 128-130). On the other hand, Tom Wolfe insists that the mind is a ghost in a machine. Determination of how the mind came to be helps to discount the views of Pinker and see that the views of Wolfe are more realistic in conjunction with human actions.

Although it is impossible to provide evidence supporting any claims involving thoughts, Goodall explained in her essay many examples revealing complex thought within the chimpanzees, including their capability in the

Scientists have discovered that bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, do in fact posses many aspects of the theory of mind. The theory of mind was something scientists thought was unique to humans. These great apes can identify the goals and intentions that were behind actions of someone else, and they can also identify features of the environment that others can know about or see. There is one thing apes can’t seem to wrap their fingers around, which is understanding others false belief. One experiment they did was showing the apes a video of humans dressed like apes. In one scene of the video the human actor was trying to search for a stone that he saw King Kong hide within one of two boxes. However, the actor went away, and King

Evolutionary psychology is a specialist field within the spectrum of psychological enquiry, which seeks to examine and understand some of the predominant reasoning behind the concept of why the human species, whilst biologically similar to other species on the planet, is so very distinct in terms of intelligence and mental progression; demonstrated by the multifaceted and complex social structures we have created. Primary to this domain of evolutionary psychological interest is the notion of ‘theory of mind’, which was developed

Browsing the recent excellent reviews and meta-analysis of age-related changes in children’s theories of mind, the social implications of these normative developmental milestones in children’s understanding has been focused. According to an

Natural settings show the child’s abilities to interact with others in the real world. Experimental settings, where children are questioned individually about hypothetical scenarios, reveal the precise level of a child’s independent understanding. What are the typical developments in theory of mind from infancy to age 5? what factors, both those in the social environment and those internal to the child, influence the rate of development? What are the consequences of theory-of-mind development for children’s social competence and for their success in school? Research shows that infants display behaviors that are important beginnings for theory-of-mind development. By age 2, children clearly show awareness of the difference between thoughts in the mind and things in the world. In pretend play toddlers show that they can distinguish between an object the block and thoughts about the object the block as a car. They also understand that people will feel happy if they get what they want and will feel sad if they do not. And at this age children see that there may be a difference between what they want and what another person wants. This developing awareness is seen in children’s language too: 2-year-olds talk about what they and others want and like and feel; when they are 3, they also talk about what people think and know. A crucial development occurs around 4 years of age when children realize that thoughts in the mind may not be true. For example, children are allowed to discover that a familiar candy box actually contains pencils, and then are asked what their friend will think is in the box, before looking inside it. Three-year-olds assume that the friend will know it has pencils inside, just as they now do, but 4-year-olds recognize that the friend will be tricked, just as they were. Three-year-olds also do not remember that their

Theory of mind is a concept which suggests the mind is made up of intentions, desires,

In humans, early attention to social stimuli can be connected to individual differences in later high order socio-cognitive abilities, such as the theory of mind. It attributes beliefs, desires and knowledge to oneself and acknowledges that the beliefs of others may differ from one’s own. Wellman, Lopez-Duran, LaBounty and Hamilton (2008) investigated forty-five infants’ early social attention. They found infants with deliberately reduced attention, through distraction, had significantly impacted theory of mind when they were four years old. Therefore, findings propose importance of early socio-cognitive abilities on development of higher order skills. However, a limitation of this study is that environmental factors were not considered which

To address this question, it is helpful to define what is meant by a ‘theory of mind’ (ToM). This proposes that people, and perhaps other animals, have the capability of understanding that others have a mental state which is separate, and perhaps different, from their own. Premack and Woodruff (1978, p.515) cited in The Open University (2016, p.86) first described this as ‘an individual has a theory of mind if he imputes mental states to himself and others’. For example, I know my team has scored at football, but my friend does not know that yet. I can theorise that he has, in this case, not just a mental state, but also a different mental state (which is also a false belief). That awareness demonstrates theory of mind (or more accurately, theory of ‘other’s’ minds).

It is believed that there is a correlation between social skills detected in childhood and later acting talent. For example, through engagement in role plays and pretending games, fascination and absorption of imaginary worlds, and a natural interest in others, children can develop their social competence, which is proved to be associated with advanced theory of mind skills in middle childhood (Bosacki & Astington, 238). According to Thalia Goldstein, Ph.D, the mind skills, also known as psychological skills, are essential for actors to portray a realistic character, and therefore, children’s

The biological and mental functions that are present in the body process the information that is given, and the mind is the mediator of the information that is processed through these biological and mental functions. It constructs an interpretation of the sensory input that is received by both functions. The information that is received by the brain is further interpreted by the mind and it constructs a unique reality from the basic information. The mind as the mediator can be seen in topics such as categorization and bias in social realities, but also in the language and thought of both humans and non-human animals. ***CONSOLIDATE THIS (LESS WORDY)***

The Absorbent Mind is a Unique and Natural gift only the child is blessed with, which aids the child to develop Language, Movement and Social Behaviour. In those 3 areas, the