Theory of mind in the context of "Divine illumination"

A mindset (also known as mentality especially when considered as biased and closed-minded) refers to an established set of attitudes of a person or group concerning culture, values, philosophy, frame of reference, outlook, or disposition. Person A is said to have a theory of mind (ToM) about person B, relating mindset research to ToM. This may also develop from a person's worldview or beliefs about the meaning of life.

A mindset could create an incentive to adopt (or accept) previous behaviors, choices, or tools, sometimes known as cognitive inertia or groupthink. When a prevailing mindset is limiting or inappropriate, it may be difficult to counteract its grip on analysis and decision-making.

Social emotional development represents a specific domain of child development. It is a gradual, integrative process through which children acquire the capacity to understand, experience, express, and manage emotions and to develop meaningful relationships with others. As such, social emotional development encompasses a large range of skills and constructs, including, but not limited to: self-awareness, joint attention, play, theory of mind (or understanding others' perspectives), self-esteem, emotion regulation, friendships, and identity development.

Social emotional development sets a foundation for children to engage in other developmental tasks. For example, in order to complete a difficult school assignment, a child may need the ability to manage their sense of frustration and seek out help from a peer. To maintain a romantic relationship after a fight, a teen may need to be able to articulate their feelings and take the perspective of their partner to successfully resolve the conflict. However, it is also interrelated with and dependent on other developmental domains. For example, language delays or deficits have been associated with social-emotional disturbances.

The problem of other minds is a philosophical problem traditionally stated as the following epistemological question: "Given that I can only observe the behavior of others, how can I know that others have minds?" The problem is that knowledge of other minds is always indirect. The problem of other minds does not negatively impact social interactions due to people having a "theory of mind" – the ability to spontaneously infer the mental states of others – supported by innate mirror neurons, a theory of mind mechanism, or a tacit theory. There has also been an increase in evidence that behavior results from cognition, which in turn requires a brain, and often involves consciousness.

It is a problem of the philosophical idea known as solipsism: the notion that for any person only one's own mind is known to exist. The problem of other minds maintains that no matter how sophisticated someone's behavior is, that does not reasonably guarantee that someone has the presence of thought occurring within them as when oneself engages in behavior. Phenomenology studies the subjective experience of human life resulting from consciousness. The specific subject within phenomenology studying other minds is intersubjectivity.

In psychology, agency is a person's ability to initiate and control their actions, and the feeling they have of being in charge of their actions. The topic of agency can be divided into two topical domains. The first half of the topic of agency deals with the behavioral sense, or outward expressive evidence thereof. The other half of the topic of agency deals with the arguments of determinism.

In behavioral psychology, agents are goal-directed entities that can monitor their environment to select and perform efficient means-end actions that are available in a given situation to achieve an intended goal. Behavioral agency, therefore, implies the ability to perceive and change the environment of the agent. Crucially, it also entails intentionality to represent the goal state in the future, equifinal variability to be able to achieve the intended goal state with different actions in different contexts, and rationality of actions in relation to their goal to produce the most efficient action available. Cognitive scientists and Behavioral psychologists have thoroughly investigated agency attribution in humans and non-human animals since social cognitive mechanisms such as communication, social learning, imitation, or theory of mind presuppose the ability to identify agents and differentiate them from inanimate, non-agentive objects. This ability has also been assumed to have a major effect on the inferential and predictive processes of the observers of agents because agentive entities are expected to perform autonomous behavior based on their current and previous knowledge and intentions. On the other hand, inanimate objects are supposed to react to external physical forces.

Dog intelligence or dog cognition is the process in dogs of acquiring information and conceptual skills, and storing them in memory, retrieving, combining and comparing them, and using them in new situations.

Studies have shown that dogs display many behaviors associated with intelligence. They have advanced memory skills, and are able to read and react appropriately to human body language such as gesturing and pointing, and to understand human voice commands. Dogs demonstrate a theory of mind by engaging in deception, and self-awareness by detecting their own smell during the "sniff test", a proposed olfactory equivalent to the mirror test.

Equine intelligence, long described in myths and anecdotes, has been the subject of scientific study since the early 20th century. The worldwide fascination for clever horses, such as Clever Hans, gave rise to a long-running controversy over the cognitive abilities of horses. The discovery of the Clever Hans effect, followed by the development of ethological studies, has progressively revealed a high level of social intelligence evident in horse's behavior. The scientific discipline that studies equine cognition, at the crossroads of ethology and animal psychology, is cognitive ethology.

Although the existence of consciousness among horses is yet to be proven, their remarkable memory has been recognized for centuries. Because of their wild herd lifestyle, horses also exhibit advanced cognitive abilities related to the theory of mind, enabling them to understand interactions with other individuals. They can recognize a human by their facial features, communicate with them through body language, and learn new skills by observing a person's behavior. Horses are also adept at categorizing and conceptual learning. In terms of working intelligence, horses respond well to habituation, desensitization, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning. They can also improvise and adapt to suit their rider. Understanding how horses' cognitive abilities function has practical applications in the relationship between domesticated horses and humans, particularly in areas such as training, breeding, and day-to-day management, which can ultimately improve their well-being.

Michael Cole (born April 13, 1938) is an American psychologist and emeritus distinguished professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where he held positions in the Department of Psychology, the Department of Communication, and the Human Development Program. His research focuses on the development of a mediational theory of mind, as well as the promotion of partnerships between UCSD and the community.