Theory of Mind as a paradigm of social cognition

Abstract

The scientific potential of the paradigm of Theory of Mind is demonstrated and the importance of this paradigm in studying social cognition is shown. Theory of Mind emerged evolutionarily at the intersection of three trends: Piaget’s theory, theory of metacognition (development of metacognitive functions) and psycholinguistics (development of an understanding narratives, emotions and reasons for the characters' behavior, the ability to understand and use words denoting mental states). Within the last thirty years Theory of Mind has proved its efficiency and high potential in studying conceptualization of social knowledge and achieving social competence. The results of the author and her co-workers’ studies are summarized and demonstrate level character of Theory of Mind development in children and adults and correspondence of social knowledge and social impacts acquisition to the achieved level. Current trends of Theory of Mind paradigm are analyzed. It is shown that studying brain mechanisms of Theory of Mind development and elaborating a tool for evaluation of the related ability is top priority.