It is well known that humans are able to represent the mental states of others. This ability is commonly thought to be unique to humans. However, recent studies on the food caching, gift giving, and cooperative behaviours of Corvids and Parrots provide evidence for this ability in birds. Upon examining the empirical evidence, I argue that the best explanation for these behaviours is that birds are able to represent conspecifics as having particular mental states. I further argue that birds are able to do this by simulating the minds of conspecifics.

Darbo objektu pasirinkta poetės Lidijos Šimkutės kūryba. Poetinio žodžio talpumu, autentiškomis metaforomis Lidija Šimkutė išsiskiria iš dabartinės kūrybinės aplinkos, nepaklūsta laikui. Darbo tikslas – išanalizuoti L.Šimkutės kūrybą, atskleidžiant autorės asmenybės ir poezijos ryšį, nepasitenkinant tik pirmuoju kūrinių įspūdžiu, akcentuojant atskirų įvaizdžių prasmę. Siekiant šio tikslo nusakyta aptariamos autorės asmenybės ir eilėraščio subjekto santykis, atskleista poetės pasaulėjauta ir didesnę įtaką jos formavimuisi turėję veiksniai, sugrupuoti L.Šimkutės poetiniai tekstai akcentuojant eilėraščio kūrimo principus, išanalizuoti išskirtoms grupėms priklausantys eilėraščiai, ieškant esminių autorės poetikos bruožų. L.Šimkutės kūrybos pagrindas – žmogaus dvasinis gyvenimas, o išorės detalės tėra tik iliustracija, bet jos labai svarbios, padedančios atskleisti poetinio subjekto vidų. Jos poezijos, kuriai būdingos buities ir supančio pasaulio realijos, paprastas kalbėjimas, negalima pavadinti vien tikrovės vaizdu. Autorės poetinis tekstas suskirstytas į tris stambias grupes: emocijos, minties, vaizdo, besiskiriančias menamų meninių formulių specifika. Ryškiai L.Šimkutės kūryboje atsispindi ir susipina skirtingos pasaulėjautos. Šalia lietuviškosios ir daugialypės vakarietiškosios kultūrų atsiduria Rytų filosofijos ir etikos detalės. Poetei svarbus menas, muzika ir, aišku, literatūros pasaulis. Kadangi L.Šimkutė, kaip pati teigia, pasaulio žmogus, jai būdingos kelių kultūrų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of the work deals with the creative works of Lidija Šimkutė. Lidija Šimkutė is significant due to the volume of the poetry and authentic metaphors. The aim of the work includes the analysis of the creative works of Lidija Šimkutė revealing the relationship between the author’s personality and the poetry mentioning not only the first impression of the works but emphasizing the meaning of the separate images as well. With the view to pursue the aim mentioned above, the ratio between the author’s personality and the subject of the poem was expressed; her attitude and factors having influenced the poet’s formation were revealed, poetical texts emphasizing the principals of creating the poem were grouped and the poems belonging to the different groups aiming to the basic characteristic features of the author’s poetry were analyzed. The creative works of Lidija Šimkutė are based on the spiritual life of a human whereas the external details are supposed to be just illustration; however, they are extremely important as they reveal the interior of the poetical subject. Her poetry which is characteristic by the realia of the trivial round and surrounding world and simple talking are not supposed to be nominated as a prospect of reality. The poetic text of the author is divided into three massive groups- emotional, notional and sight- different by the specification of imaginary artistic formulas. The different attitudes are dramatically reflected in the creative works of... [to full text]

This study investigated the Internal State (IS) language input of parents, IS language use by children, and children’s performance on perspective taking and false belief Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks. Two groups of participants were included: children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (N = 12, M chronological age = 7; 4, M language age = 6;0) and typically-developing (TD) children (N = 13, M chronological age = 6;0, M language age= 6;5), matched on language age. Independent means samples t-tests showed that the transcripts of the two groups of parents or the two groups of children did not differ in regards to total number of words, utterances, or mean length of utterance. ANOVAs were used to test for differences in IS language category or elaboration in the two groups (ASD, TD), in parents and children. For the parent data, no statistically significant differences emerged. For the analysis of child talk the ANOVA revealed that the main effect of group approached significance, with a trend towards TD children using more IS language than children with ASD. ANOVAs were also used to test for differences in ToM task performance (perspective-taking, false belief) in the two groups of children; TD children performed significantly better on ToM Tasks overall than the children with ASD. Partial correlations found that for the TD group, there were no significant correlations between the parent’s or the child’s use of IS language with the child’s performance on ToM tasks when chronological age was controlled for. For the ASD group, after controlling for chronological age and language age, the parent’s use of elaborated affect terms was significantly positively correlated with their child’s performance score on perspective-taking tasks, and the parent’s use of elaborated cognitive terms was significantly negatively correlated with their child’s performance on false-belief tasks. Also for the ASD group, the child’s use of simple affect terms was significantly positively correlated with their performance on false belief tasks after controlling for chronological age and language age. Findings are discussed in relation to prior research and clinical implications.

The following thesis is concerned with the contemporary debate in the philosophy of mind surrounding the nature of phenomenal consciousness (viz. subjective experience, or qualia). My primary aim is to adjudicate the ongoing dialectic between dualists and physicalists regarding the ontological status of phenomenal consciousness — physical or nonphysical — by examining the two major arguments most commonly deployed against physicalism: namely, the zombie argument (Chalmers), and the knowledge argument (Jackson). I conclude by showing that once physicalism has been shorn of the various doctrines that it need not and ought not accept — that is, once we are clear about what, precisely, the fundamental doctrine of physicalism actually is — it becomes clear that these arguments do not go through, and that the case for dualism has not been made. I also argue that the task of actually disarming these arguments (in the right way) is potentially critically instructive to contemporary physicalists, as this helps to nourish a clearer overall understanding of what physicalism (properly understood) is, and is not, committed to. In Chapter One I lay the groundwork for the aforementioned anti-physicalist arguments by explaining precisely what is meant by the phrase “phenomenal consciousness” and its various synonyms. I then briefly summarize the mind-body problem and articulate the so-called “explanatory gap” therein. Chapter Two looks at the zombie argument (as articulated by David Chalmers, 1996) and finds that the argument itself, as stated, actually has very little to do with defending dualism against physicalism, but rather is ultimately an argument for epiphenomenalism — which, I argue, is untenable. Chapter Three examines Frank Jackson’s knowledge argument against physicalism (1982). Here I show why the argument itself fails to support property dualism, but also why the standard physicalist objections to it fail. I argue that Mary does indeed learn facts about the world upon her release, and that physicalists must face up to this squarely. I then suggest that physicalism (properly understood) is entirely compatible with this admission. Chapter Four examines a kind of rehabilitated version of the zombie argument in the context of a larger discussion about the relation between conceivability and possibility. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-18 13:18:41.928

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1986.

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the capacity to recognize that individuals have mental states such as beliefs, perspectives, and emotions that guide their behaviour. The measures that are currently used to assess ToM are highly dependent upon linguistic skill, and typically ignore affective ToM. In the present study, two non-verbal affective ToM tasks were created. The Affective Visual Theory of Mind Task (AVToM) assessed the perception of emotions such as happy or sad, while the Emotional Narrative Task (ENT) assessed the ability to recognize the more complicated emotion of embarrassment. Participants also completed two established ToM assessments, thus allowing us to examine the relationships between the various ToM tasks. Positive correlations were found between some of the different ToM measures; importantly, these relationships were not mediated by verbal skill. However, the correlations between the measures were weak, suggesting that each task may be assessing different, but overlapping, components of ToM.

<p>Social media and mobile technology now provide consumers with the opportunity to continuously document or reflect on their moment-to-moment internal and external experiences. For instance, "tweets" are often written while one is consuming some experience, just as other forms of social media may be used in their respective ways for documentation or reflection while an experience is unfolding. But what effect does verbal documentation or reflection have on consumers' enjoyment of their time? The authors propose that when consumers can verbally document or reflect about topics other than the current experience, increased mind wandering can occur, which can help lead to reduced enjoyment. Testing the theoretical model through five experiments, the authors show that verbal documentation or reflection during an experience can reduce enjoyment, regardless of whether that experience is generally enjoyable or generally unenjoyable. However, the same effect does not occur when consumers are specifically asked to verbally document or reflect only about the experience they are taking part in. Verbal documentation or reflection right after an experience ends, which does not increase mind wandering during the experience, can lead to increased enjoyment when consumers are specifically asked to verbally document or reflect only about the experience they just took part in. Implications for the use of social media for verbal documentation and reflection by consumers and marketing managers are discussed.</p> / Dissertation

Barns fem första levnadsår präglas av en omfattande utveckling av språkliga förmågor och exekutiva funktioner, vilka är färdigheter som visat sig ha en stor påverkan på hur barn utvecklar förståelse för sina egna och andras tankar, det vill säga deras Theory of Mind. En central aspekt inom forskning har varit att undersöka hur förmågorna samvarierar vid olika åldrar. Syftet i föreliggande studie var att undersöka sambandet mellan Theory of Mind, språkliga förmågor och exekutiva funktioner hos barn i tre års ålder med typisk utveckling. Av intresse var även att undersöka om det förelåg skillnader i resultat mellan pojkar och flickor samt om de del-tagande barnens demografiska förhållanden vad gäller antal äldre och/eller yngre syskon, socio-ekonomisk status och vuxenkontakt påverkade de deltagande barnens Theory of Mind. Totalt medverkade 30 barn med typisk utveckling, varav 16 var flickor och 14 var pojkar. Åldersanpassade testmaterial användes för att undersöka Theory of Mind, grammatisk förmåga, semantisk förmåga, kognitiv flexibilitet, arbetsminne och fonemdiskrimination. Den demografiska informationen inhämtades i form av en enkät som föräldrarna fick fylla i. Resultatet indikerar att treåriga barns förmåga att hantera och förstå Theory of Mind-uppgifter samvarierar med både grammatisk förmåga och kognitiv flexibilitet. Samvariationer påträffades även mellan grammatisk förmåga och kognitiv flexibilitet, vilket stärker att språk, exe-kutiva funktioner och ToM har ett beroendeförhållande till varandra. Föreliggande studie framhåller att samtliga förmågor är mer eller mindre integrerade vid olika åldrar och korrelationerna visar på att vissa delförmågor inom språk, ToM och exekutiva funktioner går hand i hand och utvecklas i samspel med varandra. Specifikt kan den exekutiva komponenten kognitiv flexibilitet och den språkliga förmågan grammatik ses som viktiga förmågor för just treåriga barns ToM. / A childs’ first five years are characterized by an extensive development of language abilities and executive functions. These are skills that have demonstrated large impact on how children develop their understanding of their own and others’ thoughts, that is, their Theory of Mind. Within contemporary research, a central question has been to investigate how these abilities correlate at different stages of age.  The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between Theory of Mind, language and executive functions in typically developed three-year-old children. A central part in this study was also to assess whether differences in performance between boys and girls occurred and also if the number of younger and/or older siblings, socioeconomic status, and adult contact did affect the children’s performance.  A total of 30 children with typical development participated, of whom 16 were girls and 14 were boys. Age-appropriate test materials were used to examine, Theory of Mind, grammatical ability, semantic ability, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and phonetic discrimination. The demographic information was based on a questionnaire that parents of the participating children had to answer.  The result of this study indicates that the three-year child's ability to manage and understand tasks that assess Theory of mind seems to covariate with both grammatical skills and cognitive flexibility. A Correlation was also found between grammatical skills and cognitive flexibility, which indicate that language ability, executive functions and ToM have a strong dependent relationship.  The present study confirms that all abilities are more or less integrated at different ages and the correlations indicate that certain abilities in language, ToM and executive functions are de-veloped in interaction with each other. Specifically, the executive component cognitive flexibility and the grammatical ability are important abilities for three-year children’s ToM.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the capacity to recognize that individuals have mental states such as beliefs, perspectives, and emotions that guide their behaviour. The measures that are currently used to assess ToM are highly dependent upon linguistic skill, and typically ignore affective ToM. In the present study, two non-verbal affective ToM tasks were created. The Affective Visual Theory of Mind Task (AVToM) assessed the perception of emotions such as happy or sad, while the Emotional Narrative Task (ENT) assessed the ability to recognize the more complicated emotion of embarrassment. Participants also completed two established ToM assessments, thus allowing us to examine the relationships between the various ToM tasks. Positive correlations were found between some of the different ToM measures; importantly, these relationships were not mediated by verbal skill. However, the correlations between the measures were weak, suggesting that each task may be assessing different, but overlapping, components of ToM.