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Abstract
Theory of mind (ToM) has been argued to be a multidimensional construct, with ToM inferences depending on distinct processes across affective and cognitive ToM tasks and across first-order cognitive and second-order cognitive ToM tasks. Behavioural evidence for a multidimensional account has primarily depended on dissociations identified via analysis of variance, a statistical approach insufficient for assessing dimensionality. Instead, state-trace analysis (STA) is a more appropriate statistical technique to uncover dimensionality. The current study first applied STA to two summary datasets that had previously identified key dissociations between cognitive and affective ToM; these reanalyses did not support a multidimensional account of ToM. Next, STA was applied to a more detailed dataset to reveal whether ToM is based on multiple processes in a sample of 115 older adults aged 60-85 years (M = 68.5, SD = 5.92, 61.7% female) with higher or lower emotion perception ability. Participants made ToM judgements about different social exchanges (e.g., sarcasm or lying). STA results supported a multidimensional account of ToM across first-order cognitive, second-order cognitive, and affective ToM subdomains. These results lay a more rigorous foundation for subsequent studies to further examine the dimensionality of ToM and to apply formal modelling, progressing the field's understanding and measurement of the cognitive processes driving ToM judgements.
Keywords Theory of mind * Social cognition * Affective * Emotion * State-trace analysis
Introduction
A core component of social cognition is theory of mind (ToM), the capacity to make inferences about the mental state of others, a cognitive ability proposed by some to be a multidimensional construct consisting of different subdomains including cognitive and affective ToM (e.g., Duval et al., 2011; Li et al., 2013; Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2010; Wang & Su, 2013). The affective ToM subdomain relates to inferences about the affective state, emotion, or feeling of others (Duval et al., 2011). The cognitive ToM subdomain involves inferences about the beliefs, thoughts, or intentions of others and can be further categorized into first- and second-order mental representations (Duval et al., 2011). Firstorder representations require adopting the perspective of a single individual (i.e., Person A believes ...), while secondorder representations involve simultaneously adopting the perspectives of two individuals (i.e., Person A believes that Berson В believes . . . ; Duval et al., 2011)....