ABSTRACT
Psychology.—Coined by David Premack and Guy Woodruff in their original article “Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?,” the expression theory of mind refers to the ability to explain and predict one’s own actions and those of other intelligent agents (that is, agents that, unlike physical objects, are the causes of their own actions) (→ACTION, ANIMAL COGNITION, MIND). The question raised is whether this ability is specifically human, as the title of the above article suggests. A more recent issue concerns the possible lack of a theory of mind in certain humans, as suggested by Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan Leslie, and Uta Frith in their famous article “Does the Autistic Child Have a Theory of Mind?” (→AUTISM).
