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Exploring the role of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in Theory of Mind with Behavioural and EEG Measures.

Bradford, Elisabeth E.F., Gomez, Juan-Carlos, Jentzsch, Ines (2015) Exploring the role of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in Theory of Mind with Behavioural and EEG Measures. In: Experimental Psychology Society Conference, April 2015, April 2015. (Unpublished) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:62415)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM) refers to the ability to compute, attribute and understand the mental states of both ourselves (‘Self’) and other people (‘Other’). This research explored differentiation between ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in belief-attribution abilities, part of the ToM mechanism. Adult participants completed a computerized false-belief task in which they attributed beliefs to themselves and other people, in a matched design, assessing behavioural and neural correlates of belief-attribution to the ‘self’ and ‘other’. Participants responded faster to self-oriented than other-oriented questions, and this distinction was supported by electroencephalography (EEG) measures, largest across central parietal lobes from 550ms post-stimulus onset. Importantly, when a ‘perspective-shift’ was required within a trial, shifting from Self-to-Other was significantly slower than shifting from Other-to-Self. In contrast, in ‘no perspective-shift’ trials, no difference was observed between Self-to-Self and Other-to-Other trials. EEG measures revealed an early-onset interaction between perspective-shifting and probe type (300 ms post-stimulus presentation), maximal across-fronto central areas. Results demonstrate a differentiation between ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ within the ToM mechanism, indicating that the ‘Self’ is consistently processed, whilst the ‘Other’ is only processed when explicitly necessary. Critically, results highlight the importance of perspective-shifting abilities, at both a behavioural and neural level.

Item Type: Conference or workshop item (Speech)
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Funders: Organisations -1 not found.
Depositing User: Lizzie Bradford
Date Deposited: 27 Jul 2017 15:07 UTC
Last Modified: 17 Aug 2022 11:01 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/62415 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Bradford, Elisabeth E.F..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7647-0891
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