What do your dog and Shakespeare have in common? Well, they both use a Theory of Mind. Join me for this video episode in which I look at this fascinating idea of theory of mind and the unique and fun research that has been done around it. And yes, you might pick up an idea of how to test your dog to see if your dog can actually read your mind.
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Theory of Mind
- Zunshine, L. (2008). Theory of Mind and Fictions of Embodied Transparency. Narrative, 16 (1). The Ohio State University.
- Zunshine, L. Why We Read Fiction
- Alexandra Horowitze, author of Inside of a Dog, also has an interesting site called Candid Cognition: In The Mind of a Dog
- From the New York Times books section: Next Big Thing in English: Knowing They Know That You Know
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
….thats clearly a fox..
haha, great video. I First heard of this concept in relation to studies of autistic children. Interesting to know it’s application to animals, i don’t think i’ve ever really thought about it.
A fox! I think you’re right about that. Don’t know why I didn’t see that. I knew the doll wasn’t quite a horse, but…oh well. Thanks and glad you enjoyed the episode Marky.
Hi Michael,
My son has Aspergers, and I find the whole theory of mind is fascinating. To test whether he had theory of mind his psychologist took him out of the room with a chocolate box. When bringing him back in he was certain we knew that there was a small toy in the box rather than the chocolates.
I have been reading about mirror neurons and to whether this has something to do with theory of mind ie. that these mirror neurons don’t tend to work the same as in others who understand theory of mind. Any ideas/thoughts???
I have two dogs and am very keen to see if they are smart enough to know what I’m thinking, though one is blind so will be difficult to test.
Thanks for the episode it was great to show my older son so he could understand
Ree
Ree: Glad you liked the episode. I’ve been meaning to really get into mirror neurons and talk about this on the podcast but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ll definitely start doing some more reading on this and see if I can put together an episode.
Very amusing episode, Michael. I love your mad props! ;o) I’m going to try it on my three and a half year old daughter tonight.
Ree, if you’re particularly interested in mirror neurons, you might like to check out http://www.brainsciencepodcast.com. Dr Ginger Campbell has been running it for a while and has a particular interest in mirror neurons, so there are a number of episode that might be of interest to you. It’s a bit heavier going than the Psych Files and focussed more on neuroscience but it’s very accessible.
Derek: Let us know how your daughter reacted to your “experiment”!
Daughter failed big time. Will try again when she’s 4 in a few months.
Derek: let us know when she “passes the test” Derek.