Mind-theory

The application of extended mind theory to the Internet and Web yields the possibility of Internet-extended knowledge -a form of extended knowledge that arises as a result of an individual's interactions with the online environment. The present paper seeks to advance our understanding of Internet-extended knowledge by describing the functionality of a real-world application, called the HoloArt app. In part, the goal of the paper is illustrative: it is intended to show how recent advances in mixed reality, cloud-computing, and machine intelligence might be combined so as to yield a putative case of Internet-extended knowledge...

Psychological theories cast mindfulness as a form of awareness in which accepting the presence of stressful thoughts and feelings facilitates engaged exploration and identification of adaptive responses. Critics of mindfulness' popularization suggest that lay people misconstrue acceptance as a passive endorsement of experience, undermining engaged problem-solving. To evaluate this criticism, we traced the contemporary semantic meaning of mindfulness in three of the most extensive linguistic corpora of English language and found that general public's depictions of mindfulness highlight engagement-related processes...

A prominent view on personal identity over time, Jeff McMahan's 'Embodied Mind Account' (2002) holds that we cease to exist only once our brains can no longer sustain the basic capacity to uphold consciousness. One of the many implications of this view on identity persistence is that we continue to exist throughout even the most severe cases of dementia, until our consciousness irreversibly shuts down. In this paper, I argue that, while the most convincing of prominent accounts of personal identity over time, McMahan's account faces serious challenges in explanatory power of dementias and related neurodegenerative conditions...

OBJECTIVES: Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often suffer from impairments in social functioning. This study investigates differences in empathy, compassion, and Theory of Mind (ToM) in individuals with OCD as a possible cause for social functioning deficits. DESIGN: Sixty-four individuals diagnosed with OCD and 62 healthy individuals completed a naturalistic behavioural task (EmpaToM) and a self-report measure (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI)...

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Theory of mind is one of the most intensively studied phenomena in the development of schizophrenic symptoms and impairments in social adjustment. Complex theory of mind processing requires both visual and verbal aspects of the social-perceptual and social-cognitive components of mind reading. Reliable assessment methods are considered essential for the proper conduct of research. The current study aims at investigating the psychometric properties of the Theory of Mind Picture Stories Task (ToM PST). Forty-seven patients with schizophrenia were enrolled in the study from three sites...

Theory of mind (ToM) impairment is associated with poor social functioning in some psychological disorders (e.g., autism and schizophrenia). ToM deficits have also been linked with offending behavior in the theoretical literature. However, no review has examined the empirical evidence for such a link. We carried out a systematic review to provide a critical overview of studies involving ToM ability in offenders. We included studies published in English that used an instrument to measure at least one aspect of ToM...

OBJECTIVES: Schizophrenia spectrum disorders are associated with incapacitating social impairments, mostly due to Theory of Mind (ToM) deficits. Theory of mind difficulties often precede the beginning of schizophrenia spectrum disorders and contribute highly to the social withdrawal of patients. They also predict bad outcome for individuals suffering from this condition. The use of samples of individuals presenting subclinical forms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders constitute an opportunity to study theory of mind capacities...

It is a near consensus among materialist philosophers of mind that consciousness must somehow be constituted by internal neural processes, even if we remain unsure quite how this works. Even friends of the extended mind theory have argued that when it comes to the material substrate of conscious experience, the boundary of skin and skull is likely to prove somehow to be privileged. Such arguments have, however, typically conceived of the constitution of consciousness in synchronic terms, making a firm separation between proximate mechanisms and their ultimate causes...

Restoration skills training (ReST) is a mindfulness-based course that draws on restorative nature experience to facilitate the meditation practice and teach widely applicable adaptation skills. Previous studies comparing ReST to conventional mindfulness training (CMT) showed that ReST has important advantages: it supports beginning meditators in connecting with restorative environmental qualities and in meditating with less effort; it restores their attention regulation capabilities; and it helps them complete the course and establish a regular meditation habit...

BACKGROUND: Theory of Mind (ToM) is defined as the ability to understand mental and emotional state. This ability is assessed also in neurodegenerative disease. Few studies have investigated the impact that social cognition of patients could have on caregiver burden. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible correlation in level of social cognition impairment between patients with different neurodegenerative disorders and their caregivers with possible impact on caregivers burden...

Based on the "brain-mind theory" of traditional Chinese medicine, the dysfunction of brain mind is the mechanism of the Parkinson's disease in pathogenesis. In modern medicine, the brain-gut axis theory believes that the impairment of intestinal flora is of the reciprocal causation with the cerebral pathological changes in Parkinson's disease. Hence, the theory of xingnao tiaochang (regaining consciousness and regulating intestine) is proposed in combination of the dysfunction of brain mind with the brain-gut axis, based on which, the treating principle and method are determined for regulating the brain and intestine...

Fatigue is the most common symptom among people living with HIV (PLWH), but may have many causes. This mixed-method study was designed to characterize PLWH's fatigue experiences and associated self-management behaviors, using Two Minds Theory. Fifty-five PLWH completed daily smartphone surveys on psychological states and fatigue at random times for 30 days and used a Fitbit Alta™ wristband. Within-person multilevel models were used to identify univariate correlates of fatigue. The first 25 participants also completed qualitative interviews about their experiences, and results were compared across methods...

Two minds theory (TMT) offers a new approach to changing health behavior. Here, TMT is applied to self-management of Type 1 diabetes. TMT can be conceptualized as a cycle where a stimulus produces an immediate Intuitive system response leading to health behavior, followed by a conscious narrative system response that is temporally delayed. Narrative responses do not produce behaviors directly but instead lead to conscious beliefs about past events and behavioral intentions for the future, both of which become part of the material considered by the intuitive system in selecting future behaviors...

Ellen Langer's mindfulness construct is presented as "indigenous" to disciplinary psychology. Langer's early work laid the foundations for the research program she would come to call the psychology of possibility. Studying inattentive behavior (mindlessness) and intentionally reflective cognition (mindfulness) placed her work directly in line with the theoretical priorities of the 1970s and influenced the direction of research in several subdisciplines related to social cognition. Positioning Langer's work at an intersection crossed by various discourse communities in psychology explains much of its influence within the discipline...

In the contemporary cognitive science and philosophy of mind debate the definition of the ontology of the Self is difficult if not downright dubious. Thus, different theories aim to provide an account, especially where further neuroscientific research could be implemented. To this extent, the identity of the Self is suggested to be pinpointed by virtue of its specific set of mechanical features or brain functions, or it is considered the product of cognitive and conceptual capacities that build representations and narratives about ourselves...

This essay explores the relevance of the practice of mindfulness of feeling tones as a useful framework for research. First it presents three common types of feeling tones: pleasant/unpleasant and neutral. Then it looks at the matrix in which they could be usefully considered for research, that is the nāma factors (contact, feeling tone, perception, attention and intention). It explains that feeling tones are constructed and that they do not reside in the object of experience. This is followed by a rigorous study of each types of feeling tones and our reaction to their valence as they can have a strong impact on our behavior...

In an increasingly technology-textured environment, smart, intelligent and responsive technology has moved onto the body of many individuals. Mobile phones, smart watches, and wearable activity trackers (WATs) are just some of the technologies that are guiding, nudging, monitoring, and reminding individuals in their day-to-day lives. These devices are designed to enhance and support their human users, however, there is a lack of attention to the unintended consequences, the technology non-neutrality and the darker sides of becoming human-tech hybrids...

Human adults recruit distinct networks of brain regions to think about the bodies and minds of others. This study characterizes the development of these networks, and tests for relationships between neural development and behavioral changes in reasoning about others' minds ('theory of mind', ToM). A large sample of children (n = 122, 3-12 years), and adults (n = 33), watched a short movie while undergoing fMRI. The movie highlights the characters' bodily sensations (often pain) and mental states (beliefs, desires, emotions), and is a feasible experiment for young children...

What does it take to have a creative mind? Theories of creative cognition assert that the quantity of automatic associations places fundamental constraints on the probability of reaching creative solutions. Due to the difficulties inherent in isolating automated associative responses from cognitive control, the neural basis underlying this faculty remains unknown. Here we acquired fMRI data in an incidental-viewing paradigm in which subjects performed an attention-demanding task whilst viewing task-irrelevant objects...