Does interference between self and other perspectives in theory of mind tasks reflect a common underlying process? Evidence from individual differences in theory of mind and inhibitory control

Abstract

Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to understand that other agents have different beliefs, desires, and knowledge than oneself, has been extensively researched. Theory of mind tasks involve participants dealing with interference between their self-perspective and another agent's perspective, and this interference has been related to executive function, particularly to inhibitory control. This study assessed whether there are individual differences in self-other interference, and whether these effects are due to individual differences in executive function. A total of 142 participants completed two ToM (the director task and a Level 1 visual perspective-taking task), which both involve self-other interference, and a battery of inhibitory control tasks. The relationships between the tasks were examined using path analysis. Results showed that the self-other interference effects of the two ToM tasks were dissociable, with individual differences in performance on the ToM tasks being unrelated and performance in each predicted by different inhibitory control tasks. We suggest that self-other differences are part of the nature of ToM tasks, but self-other interference is not a unitary construct. Instead, self-other differences result in interference effects in various ways and at different stages of processing, and these effects may not be a major limiting step for adults' performance on typical ToM tasks. Further work is needed to assess other factors that may limit adults' ToM performance and hence explain individual differences in social ability.

Emotion and liking: how director emotional expression and knowledge of (dis)liking may impact adults’ ability to follow the instructions of an ignorant speaker

“…As such, rather than observing a negative impact owing to the avoidance of avatar liking, when the director's preference was to approach the target object (liking target, disliking competitor), we observed a facilitation in performance, with accuracy rates for these conditions higher than in previous studies (e.g. Qureshi Monk, Samson & Apperly, 2019;Apperly et al, 2010).…”

“…Inhibitory control, the ability to stop a dominant response, has been linked to performance the Director task (Qureshi, Monk, Samson & Apperly, 2019;Symeonidou, Dumontheil, Chow & Breheny, 2016). Its role may be to allow participants to inhibit their salient self-perspective to take the belief and knowledge of the director into account.…”

Could Acting Training Improve Social Cognition and Emotional Control?

“…Brain regions involved in ToM include superior temporal sulcus, temporal poles, medial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, and posterior cingulate/precuneus (Schurz et al, 2014 ). Additionally, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction are implicated in self/other processing and judgments (Denny et al, 2012 ) and it has been suggested that overcoming self–other interference and ToM are deeply integrated processes (Qureshi et al, 2020 ). Moreover, simulating others has been shown to influence self-knowledge, with trait and memory measures becoming similar to a simulated other after adopting their perspective (Meyer et al, 2019 ).…”

Stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impacts conflict resolution in Level-1 visual perspective taking

“…Nevertheless, the current results should be viewed in light of the potential limitations of within-subject testing, caused by possible practice or familiarity effects caused by repeat testing. Post-hoc power analyses suggest that the power to detect the observed effect sizes was 0.97 (Faul et al, 2009), although a more well powered and pre-registered study (while the study was not preregistered (Munafò et al, 2017), the data are available on request) should be conducted in order to enable stronger inferences and conclusions (Zwaan et al, 2017).…”