Minimal Mindreading in Great Apes and Young Children

类人猿和幼儿的最小读心能力

• 批准号: 2267016
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of St Andrews
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2267016
• 关键词: Minimal; Mindreading; Great; Apes; Young

The project will test the two-system mindreading hypothesis which holds that the mindreading ability (attributing mental states to others) of nonhuman animals and infants is subject to signature limits which set it apart from a more sophisticated system displayed by older children and adults. A cognitively more sophisticated system may process 'beliefs as such' whilst the limited system processes registrations - belief-like states that are limited in that they cannot process propositions about identity (which is required for 'beliefs as such'). Registrations resemble beliefs and either could be used to pass the benchmark test of belief-reasoning - the change-of-location false belief task. The change-of-location false belief task consists of a subject viewing an actor put a desired object in one of two containers. Subsequently, the actor leaves the scene and, unbeknownst to actor but not the subject, another actor changes the location of the object to a different location. When the first actor returns, the subject should indicate where it expects the actor to look for the object. Crucially, the subject is not necessarily representing a propositional belief of the actor (i.e. 'they believe the object to be hidden there') but could also solve the task by tracking the relation of the actor and an object; in other words, by registering the actor's relation to the object. In order to reveal which of the systems is being deployed in a false belief test, the test needs to require representing also under which aspect is an object represented in another's mind - an object needs change identities. This change-of-identity task would tease apart the successful performance of the limited mindreaders from the sophisticated ones: a limited mindreader would pass the change-of-location task but fail the change-of-identity task; the sophisticated mindreader would pass both.According to some authors, children under the age of four and nonhuman animals have a limited system and cannot represent others' aspectual representations (which requires a sophisticated system). Given that apes and young children have been reported to pass an implicit change-of-location false belief task in which their looking behaviour was recorded (in lieu of explicit predictions such as pointing or verbalising), the same eye-tracking methodology can be used with an aspectual false belief task. The two-system hypothesis predicts that, while successful in the change-of-location task, apes and children should fail at a change-of-identity task. The overall aim of this project is to test this hypothesis and further illuminate the way great apes and young children represent the mental states of others, which in turn informs the nature of their social cognition more broadly.

该项目将测试双系统读心假说，该假说认为非人类动物和婴儿的读心能力（将精神状态归因于他人）受到特征限制，这使其与年龄较大的儿童和成人表现出的更复杂的系统区分开来。认知上更复杂的系统可以处理“信念本身”，而有限系统处理注册 - 类似信念的状态，其受到限制，因为它们无法处理有关身份的命题（这是“信念本身”所必需的）。注册类似于信念，并且都可以用于通过信念推理的基准测试 - 位置变化错误信念任务。位置变更错误信念任务由受试者观看演员将所需物体放入两个容器之一中组成。随后，演员离开场景，在演员不知情但主体不知情的情况下，另一位演员将物体的位置更改为不同的位置。当第一个参与者返回时，主体应该指示它期望参与者在哪里寻找对象。至关重要的是，主体不一定代表行动者的命题信念（即“他们相信物体隐藏在那里”），但也可以通过跟踪行动者和物体的关系来解决任务；换句话说，通过记录演员与客体的关系。为了揭示错误信念测试中正在部署哪个系统，该测试还需要表示在另一个人的头脑中代表的对象在哪个方面 - 对象需要更改身份。这个身份改变任务将区分有限读心者和复杂读心者的成功表现：有限读心者会通过位置改变任务，但会失败身份改变任务；复杂的读心术者会通过这两项。根据一些作者的说法，四岁以下的儿童和非人类动物的系统有限，无法代表他人的侧面表征（这需要复杂的系统）。鉴于据报道，猿类和幼儿通过了一项隐式位置变化错误信念任务，其中记录了他们的观看行为（代替诸如指向或言语等明确预测），因此可以使用相同的眼球追踪方法具有方面的错误信念任务。双系统假说预测，虽然猿类和儿童在改变位置任务中取得成功，但在改变身份任务中应该会失败。该项目的总体目标是检验这一假设，并进一步阐明类人猿和幼儿代表他人心理状态的方式，从而更广泛地了解他们的社会认知的本质。