Submentalizing or Mentalizing in a Level 1 Perspective-Taking Task: A Cloak and Goggles Test

Jane R Conway; Danna Lee; Mobin Ojaghi; Caroline Catmur; Geoffrey Bird

doi:10.1037/xhp0000319

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Submentalizing or Mentalizing in a Level 1 Perspective-Taking Task: A Cloak and Goggles Test

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Submentalizing or Mentalizing in a Level 1 Perspective-Taking Task: A Cloak and Goggles Test

Jane R Conway, Danna Lee, Mobin Ojaghi, Caroline Catmur and Geoffrey Bird

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol.43(3), pp.454-465

2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000319

PMCID: PMC5327864

PMID: 27893269

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Abstract

domain-general processing

implicit mentalizing

submentalizing

theory of mind

visual perspective taking

It has been proposed that humans possess an automatic system to represent mental states (‘implicit mentalizing’). The existence of an implicit mentalizing system has generated considerable debate however, centered on the ability of various experimental paradigms to demonstrate unambiguously such mentalizing. Evidence for implicit mentalizing has previously been provided by the ‘dot perspective task,’ where participants are slower to verify the number of dots they can see when an avatar can see a different number of dots. However, recent evidence challenged a mentalizing interpretation of this effect by showing it was unaltered when the avatar was replaced with an inanimate arrow stimulus. Here we present an extension of the dot perspective task using an invisibility cloaking device to render the dots invisible on certain trials. This paradigm is capable of providing unambiguous evidence of automatic mentalizing, but no such evidence was found. Two further well-powered experiments used opaque and transparent goggles to manipulate visibility but found no evidence of automatic mentalizing, nor of individual differences in empathy or perspective-taking predicting performance, contradicting previous studies using the same design. The results cast doubt on the existence of an implicit mentalizing system, suggesting that previous effects were due to domain-general processes.

Details

Title: Submentalizing or Mentalizing in a Level 1 Perspective-Taking Task: A Cloak and Goggles Test
Authors: Jane R Conway (Author) - King's College London
Danna Lee (Author) - King's College London
Mobin Ojaghi (Author) - King's College London
Caroline Catmur (Author) - King's College London
Geoffrey Bird (Author) - University College London
Publication details: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol.43(3), pp.454-465
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Date published: 2017
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0000319
ISSN: 1939-1277; 0096-1523
PMID: 27893269; PMC5327864
Copyright note: This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s). Author(s) grant(s) the American Psychological Association the exclusive right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
Organisation Unit: Graduate Research School; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99629139102621
Output Type: Journal article

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