Minimal Theory of Mind
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An agent’s _field_ is a set of objects related to the agent by proximity, orientation and other factors.
First approximation: an agent _encounters_ an object just if it is in her field.
A _goal_ is an outcome to which one or more actions are, or might be, directed.
%(Not to be confused with a _goal-state_, which is an intention or other state of an agent linking an action to a particular goal to which it is directed.)
**Principle 1**: one can’t goal-directedly act on an object unless one has encountered it.
Applications: subordinate chimps retrieve food when a dominant is not informed of its location (Hare, Call, & Tomasello, 2001); when observed scrub-jays prefer to cache in shady, distant and
occluded locations (Dally, Emery, & Clayton, 2004; Clayton, Dally, & Emery, 2007).
First approximation: an agent _registers_ an object at a location just if she most recently encountered the object at that location.
A registration is _correct_ just if the object is at the location it is registered at.
**Principle 2**: correct registration is a condition of successful action.
Applications: 12-month-olds point to inform depending on their informants’ goals and ignorance (Liszkowski, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2008); chimps retrieve food when a dominant is misinformed about its location (Hare et al., 2001);
scrub-jays observed caching food by a competitor later re-cache in private (Clayton et al., 2007; Emery & Clayton, 2007).
**Principle 3**: when an agent performs a goal-directed action and the goal specifies an object, the agent will act as if the object were actually in the location she registers it at.
Applications: some false belief tasks (Onishi & Baillargeon, 2005; Southgate, Senju, & Csibra, 2007; Buttelmann, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2009).
Work through minimal theory of mind with Onishi & Baillargeon ...