I See, You See: An Event-Related Potential Study of Theory of Mind in a Naturalistic VR Environment

Communication involves understanding the difference between our own perspective (visual perspective, beliefs, and knowledge) and that of an addressee. Previous research found that knowledge about a speaker’s background (e.g., stereotypes, accent, etc.) affects online language processing in listeners. However, the role and automaticity of Theory of Mind (ToM) – the ability to attribute beliefs to someone - remains unclear. Typically, we expect individuals to speak according to their beliefs and perspectives. But what if their utterances mismatch with what we expect them to know? We designed a novel perspective-taking paradigm in a virtual environment, which manipulates an agent’s belief. We then recorded electroencephalographical data from participants, while they listened to the agent making statements either matching or mismatching their false or true beliefs. Specifically, we analyzed the N400: a component, which amplitude scales with the unexpectedness of a content word. We...Show moreCommunication involves understanding the difference between our own perspective (visual perspective, beliefs, and knowledge) and that of an addressee. Previous research found that knowledge about a speaker’s background (e.g., stereotypes, accent, etc.) affects online language processing in listeners. However, the role and automaticity of Theory of Mind (ToM) – the ability to attribute beliefs to someone - remains unclear. Typically, we expect individuals to speak according to their beliefs and perspectives. But what if their utterances mismatch with what we expect them to know? We designed a novel perspective-taking paradigm in a virtual environment, which manipulates an agent’s belief. We then recorded electroencephalographical data from participants, while they listened to the agent making statements either matching or mismatching their false or true beliefs. Specifically, we analyzed the N400: a component, which amplitude scales with the unexpectedness of a content word. We predicted that statements mismatching an agent’s true belief (e.g., seeing a car and saying “That’s a screwdriver”) would result in larger N400 components, compared to statements matching the true beliefs. We found strong evidence for this prediction. Further, we predicted that knowledge of an agent’s unawareness that the state of affairs has changed (i.e., a false belief) is considered when interpreting their statements. We found indirect evidence for this: statements matching their false beliefs do not elicit an N400. However, statements mismatching their false beliefs (e.g., agent says something they couldn’t have known) neither are marked by the N400. Results support ToM’s role in interpreting language.Show less

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I See, You See: An Event-Related Potential Study of Theory of Mind in a Naturalistic VR Environment