The cultural evolution of mind reading.

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0404511 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1095-9203 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00368075 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Science Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: : Washington, DC : American Association for the Advancement of Science
Original Publication: New York, N.Y. : [s.n.] 1880-

Cultural Evolution* ; Nonverbal Communication* ; Telepathy* ; Theory of Mind*; Adult ; Autistic Disorder/psychology ; Brain/physiology ; Child, Preschool ; Cognition ; Dyslexia/psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Learning ; Male

It is not just a manner of speaking: "Mind reading," or working out what others are thinking and feeling, is markedly similar to print reading. Both of these distinctly human skills recover meaning from signs, depend on dedicated cortical areas, are subject to genetically heritable disorders, show cultural variation around a universal core, and regulate how people behave. But when it comes to development, the evidence is conflicting. Some studies show that, like learning to read print, learning to read minds is a long, hard process that depends on tuition. Others indicate that even very young, nonliterate infants are already capable of mind reading. Here, we propose a resolution to this conflict. We suggest that infants are equipped with neurocognitive mechanisms that yield accurate expectations about behavior ("automatic" or "implicit" mind reading), whereas "explicit" mind reading, like literacy, is a culturally inherited skill; it is passed from one generation to the next by verbal instruction.
(Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

091593 United Kingdom Wellcome Trust

Date Created: 20140621 Date Completed: 20140708 Latest Revision: 20211021

20250114

10.1126/science.1243091

24948740