Abstract

We have the ability to predict and understand behavior of ourselves and others by attributing various mental states. How can this ability, so-called the theory of mind, be explained? At present, we have two explanations, theory-theory and simulation-theory, and cannot decide which is better. However, if we appreciate that the underlying problem is how to describe the psychological mechanism which generates the phenomena describable as the use of theoretical knowledge, we can see that there remains an important alternative explanation which explains the ability as a kind of pattern recognition.