The ABCs of How We Learn by Daniel L. Schwartz

Author:Daniel L. Schwartz
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2016-03-15T05:00:00+00:00

Figure O.2. False belief task. Children younger than four years often say that Sally will look for the marble in the white box in panel 5. The children know the marble is in the white box, and they do not consider that Sally will have a different representation of the marble’s location. (From Byom and Mutlu, 2013.)

Theory of mind enables people to infer the goals of another person. This is important for observational learning. It helps the observer figure out which parts of a behavior to imitate and how to make useful variations. Imagine a young child’s first visit to the bowling alley. His mom says, “Do it like this.” She runs to the line, flings the ball with her right arm, and coughs. Because the child assumes the intent is to roll the ball down the alley, he knows to skip the cough. He also figures it is OK to push the ball with two hands instead of flinging it with one. Now, if the child could not figure out the goal of mom’s behaviors, for example, if she were practicing her form in the living room without a ball or alley, he would try to imitate all her behaviors exactly.

Theory of mind and mirroring work together. In fact, the mirroring system appears to be especially active when observing someone engaged in goal-directed actions, compared with observing random movements. The human capacity to imagine other people’s goals helps constrain the features of the activity they should mirror.

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