Defining key concepts for mental state attribution
Open accessAbstract
The terminology used in discussions on mental state attribution is extensive and lacks consistency. In the current paper, experts from various disciplines collaborate to introduce a shared set of concepts and make recommendations regarding future use.
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ToM tasks measure the ability to employ mental states in explanations and predictions of behavior and can be distinguished from tasks that may only require emotion recognition or only require empathic sharing of mental states.
“These ToM tasks measure the ability to employ mental states in explanations and predictions of behavior and as such can be distinguished from tasks that may only require emotion recognition (e.g., Baron-Cohen et al., 2001; Oakley et al., 2016), or only require empathic sharing of mental states (e.g., Quesque et al., 2024; Reniers et al., 2011).”
From Longitudinal development of theory of mind in adolescence and its associations with fiction reading experience. (2025) · cites this paper as Quesque et al., 2024
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Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?
Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00076512 · Cited by 8,743 · see citing works
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Research works printed but not linked: 6
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van der Kleij, S. W., Devine, R. T., Shapiro, L. R., Ricketts, J., & Apperly, I. (2025) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0001965 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Quesque, F., Apperly, I., Baillargeon, R., Baron-Cohen, S., Becchio, C., Bekkering, H., Bernstein, D., Bertoux, M., Bird, G., Bukowski, H., Burgmer, P., Carruthers, P., Catmur, C., Dziobek, I., Epley, N., Erle, T. M., Frith, C., Frith, U., Galang, C. M., Gallese, V., Grynberg, D., Happé, F., Hirai, M., Hodges, S. D., Kanske, P., Kret, M., Lamm, C., Nandrino, J. L., Obhi, S., Olderbak, S., Perner, J., Rossetti, Y., Schneider, D., Schurz, M., Schuwerk, T., Sebanz, N., Shamay-Tsoory, S., Silani, G., Spaulding, S., Todd, A. R., Westra, E., Zahavi, D., & Brass, M.
- Affiliations
- Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier (FR)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (DE)
- Kwantlen Polytechnic University (CA)
- Inserm (FR)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- UCLouvain (BE)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- King's College London (GB)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Tilburg University (NL)
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Nagoya University (JP)
- University of Oregon (US)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
- Leiden University (NL)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- McMaster University (CA)
- IFT Institut für Therapieforschung (DE)
- University of Salzburg (AT)
- Lyon 1 Université (FR)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
- Universität Innsbruck (AT)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
- Central European University (AT)
- Oklahoma State University (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Quesque, François
- Brass, Marcel
- ORCID
- Quesque, François
- Apperly, Ian
- Baron-Cohen, Simon
- Becchio, Cristina
- Bernstein, Daniel
- Bertoux, Maxime
- Bird, Geoffrey
- Bukowski, Henryk
- Burgmer, Pascal
- Carruthers, Peter
- Catmur, Caroline
- Dziobek, Isabel
- Erle, Thorsten Michael
- Frith, Chris
- Galang, Carl Michael
- Gallese, Vittorio
- Grynberg, Delphine
- Hirai, Masahiro
- Hodges, Sara D.
- Kanske, Philipp
- Kret, Mariska
- Lamm, Claus
- Nandrino, Jean Louis
- Obhi, Sukhvinder
- Olderbak, Sally
- Perner, Josef
- Rossetti, Yves
- Schneider, Dana
- Schurz, Matthias
- Schuwerk, Tobias
- Sebanz, Natalie
- Shamay-Tsoory, Simone
- Silani, Giorgia
- Spaulding, Shannon
- Todd, Andrew R.
- Westra, Evan
- Zahavi, Dan
- Brass, Marcel
- Venue
- Communications Psychology
- Published
- 2024-04-11
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 29-29
- ISSN
- 2731-9121 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC11332223
- OpenAlex
- W4394713651
- Cited by
- 97
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 37 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 74.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communications Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Research portal (Tilburg University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- LillOA (Université de Lille (University Of Lille)) (submittedVersion)
- Open Research (Auckland University of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (23K17638, 21KK0041, 21H03783)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Keywords
- mental state attribution, theory of mind, conceptual definitions, terminology, conceptual consistency, shared concepts, interdisciplinary collaboration
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