Theory of Mind and Preference Learning at the Interface of Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and AI: A Review

Abstract

Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability of the human mind to attribute mental states to others—is a key component of human cognition. In order to understand other people's mental states or viewpoint and to have successful interactions with others within social and occupational environments, this form of social cognition is essential. The same capability of inferring human mental states is a prerequisite for artificial intelligence (AI) to be integrated into society, for example in healthcare and the motoring industry. Autonomous cars will need to be able to infer the mental states of human drivers and pedestrians to predict their behavior. In the literature, there has been an increasing understanding of ToM, specifically with increasing cognitive science studies in children and in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Similarly, with neuroimaging studies there is now a better understanding of the neural mechanisms that underlie ToM. In addition, new AI algorithms for inferring human mental states have been proposed with more complex applications and better generalisability. In this review, we synthesize the existing understanding of ToM in cognitive and neurosciences and the AI computational models that have been proposed. We focus on preference learning as an area of particular interest and the most recent neurocognitive and computational ToM models. We also discuss the limitations of existing models and hint at potential approaches to allow ToM models to fully express the complexity of the human mind in all its aspects, including values and preferences.

The mediating effects of needs satisfaction on the relationships between prior knowledge and self‐regulated learning through artificial intelligence chatbot

“…Thus, a chatbot that supports the needs for autonomy and competence can encourage self-direction. The theory of mind in AI (Langley et al, 2022) suggests that the process is primarily cognitive rather than emotional, as social information can be processed regardless of whether it comes from AI or another person (Lee, 2004). An appreciation of the subject (ie, English) rather than the chatbot itself can encourage students to invest cognitive effort in the process.…”

Three levels at which the user's cognition can be represented in artificial intelligence

“…However, we believe that such models have difficulties to guarantee that an AI application makes valid inferences about user behavior as they do no consider the cognitive processes underlying that behavior. Furthermore, it has been questioned whether it is computationally possible for AI to make complex inferences about a user, when only observable behavior is available (Armstrong and Mindermann, 2018) and using (formal) models of human cognition may be helpful to mitigate this problem (Hélie and Pizlo, 2022;Langley et al, 2022).…”

“…The current perspective can be considered in view of recent developments to endow AI with a Theory of Mind (Premack andWoodruff, 1978) [ToM, e.g., Baker et al, 2010;Cuzzolin et al, 2020;Nguyen and Gonzalez, 2022; for a review see, Langley et al (2022)]. Whereas a review of these developments is beyond the scope of the present endeavor, we believe that the levels of integration we propose can be helpful when researchers in AI seek inspiration in cognitive (neuro)sciences to develop Machine ToM.…”

Artificial Social Intelligence: A Comparative and Holistic View

“…Children follow another agent's gaze at approximately 14 months of age, move to acquire visual information, and visually confirm (check back and forth) that the other agent is experiencing the same reality as themselves [92] . By 14-18 months, the infant begins comprehending the mental states of desire, intention, and the causal relationship between emotions and goals through gaze direction [93] . Around the ages of 3-4, children begin to comprehend the differences between their own beliefs and knowledge and those of others, and thus begin to comprehend false beliefs; however, this ability does not become fully stable until the ages of 5-6 [94] .…”