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Submentalizing: I Am Not Really Reading Your Mind
1All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford cecilia.heyes@all-souls.ox.ac.uk.
Summary
This study challenges the idea of automatic mentalizing (thinking about others' mental states). It suggests that observed behaviors may stem from general cognitive processes (submentalizing) rather than true mind-reading.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Philosophy of Mind
Background:
- The nativist view posits an inherent human capacity for mentalizing, or thinking about others' mental states.
- Recent research suggests adults and infants engage in automatic, or implicit, mentalizing.
- This view is supported by studies indicating automatic representation of others' perceptions, intentions, and beliefs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically evaluate the evidence for implicit mentalizing in adults.
- To propose alternative explanations for findings attributed to implicit mentalizing.
- To explore the role of domain-general cognitive mechanisms in social cognition.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of existing experimental paradigms designed to demonstrate implicit mentalizing.
- Examination of cognitive mechanisms potentially underlying observed behaviors.
- Theoretical argumentation to differentiate mentalizing from submentalizing.
Main Results:
- Experimental results attributed to implicit mentalizing may be explained by submentalizing processes.
- Submentalizing encompasses domain-general mechanisms like attentional orienting and spatial coding.
- These mechanisms can simulate mentalizing effects in social contexts.
Conclusions:
- Current evidence does not conclusively support automatic implicit mentalizing in adults.
- Domain-general cognitive processes (submentalizing) offer a parsimonious explanation for observed social behaviors.
- Submentalizing may serve as both a foundation and a replacement for explicit mentalizing.
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