Mindreaders

by Ian Apperly

Theory of mind, or "mindreading" as it is termed in this book, is the ability to think about beliefs, desires, knowledge and intentions. It has been studied extensively by developmental and comparative psychologists and more recently by neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists. This book is the first to draw together these diverse findings in an account of the cognitive basis of "theory of mind", and establishes the systematic study of these abilities in adults as a new field of enquiry.

Apperly focuses on perceptions, knowledge and beliefs as paradigm cases of mindreading, and uses this as a basis from which more general lessons can be drawn. The book argues that an account of the cognitive basis of mindreading is necessary for making sense of findings from neuroscience and developmental and comparative psychology, as well as for understanding how mindreading fits more broadly into the cognitive system. It questions standard philosophical accounts of mindreading, and suggests a move away from the notion that it consists simply of having a "theory of mind".

This unique study into the cognitive basis of mindreading will be ideal reading for academics and advanced students from the diverse disciplines that have studied theory of mind in particular, and social cognition more generally.

Genres: Psychology

232 pages, Hardcover

First published November 10, 2010

Reviews

[Britt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice overview of research on 'mindreading', or theory of mind. Explores both philosophical aspects, as well as experimental data from current research.
The book starts by giving an overview of the history of theory of mind, common philosophical views and research in the field. It then continues to defend the theory of Apperly himself: Apperly postulates a dual-module appraoch to mindreading. His hypothesis is that there is not one module for mindreading, but two, one for automatic, low-level processing, and one for higher-level processing. This would explain contradictory findings in infant and animal research, and would, according to Apperly, provide a better explanation of how mindreading works.
The argument he makes is clear and he does have a number of good points; it will be interesting to see if research picks up on his theory and if it will be able to confirm Apperly's hypothesis.

[Sol Dulac · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was Mindreader by Iain levison.
GR didn't accept it.
2015 Editions Liana Levi
Wandel Cruse, Paris

[aqeel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about Theory of mind. The writer viewed many paradigms of mind reading process. He explored it from many angles. He also mentioned many experiments about false beliefs.
كتاب رائع حول نظرية العقل ( القدرة على تخمين افعال الآخرين بناءً على حالتهم الحالية في البيئة ) يتكلم عن العديد البُنى المقترحة لتفسير هذه القدرة. كذلك استعرض العديد من التجارب حول (الاعتقاد الخاطئ)