Common Themes in the Theory of Mind, Self Awareness, and Tool Use

Theory of Mind, Self Awareness, and Tool Use
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Due Date Theory of Mind, Self Awareness, and Tool Use Introduction Theory of mind, self-awareness, and tool use has been long considered unique traits to human beings due to the inability of other nonhuman animals to develop such capacities. Theory of mind is the innate capacity of people’s minds to assign mental states to other human entities, and it incorporates recognizing others people’s beliefs, interests, ambitions, and ideologies. Humans are self-aware of themselves, not just their environment but also their individuality, behaviors, attitudes, bodies, moods, and mental life. Morin (2011) adds that self-consciousness means recognizing a person’s existence. In tool use, humans are the only species that can identify the causal link between tools and the outcome of their usage more elaborately, despite primates being the next close group capable of comparable elements. The definitions above demonstrate that the three aspects are specific to human ability. However, contemporary research tends to disregard such conclusions. The three domains have attracted numerous discourses in psychology and cognitive development to determine whether the traits are uniquely human or not.   Common Themes in the Three Domains The common theme in the three domains relates to the innate ability to exclusively understand them and broadly apply them to human civilization development and continuity. This aspect is not the case in nonhuman animals. Another theme is control over the three domains, which humans can do, while nonhumans are incapacitated to regulate ToM, tool use, and self-awareness. Theory of Mind Human beings are highly social, and one of the most critical aspects of human interaction is their ability to attribute others’ ideas, opinions, and emotions, known as the theory of mind. The capacity to perceive and interpret mental descriptions is one of the components that underpin this aspect. Generally, people define emotions, beliefs, and actions that they detect from others through the theory of mind. It relies on mental processes that are mainly automatic, such as imitation, cooperative attention, and projection, and more time-consuming techniques like simulation and psychological-state inference. This argument places theory of mind as a human-specific aspect in that ToM is a multifaceted process that only humans can adapt, regulate, and change. Researchers investigated whether nonhuman animals have a theory of mind by exploring studies on chimpanzees’ and human infants’ comprehension of goals and intentions. The studies encompassed finding food, reactions to partner’s actions, and imitation (Call & Tomasello, 2008). It found that, although not conclusively, chimpanzees understand others through a perception-based type of psychology, while humans embrace a full-blown human belief-desire psychology. As a result, one can strongly argue that the theory of mind is unique to humans due to the complexities involved since nonhuman animals interact with others based on natural competition. Self-awareness Self-awareness reflects a person’s awareness ...