How to Construct a Minimal Theory of Mind

Infants, chimpanzees, scrub-jays and adults under cognitive load can all act in ways whose success is contingent on facts about what others perceive and believe. How are they able to do this? Some hold that it is by means of representing perceptions and beliefs as such, others counter that it is by representing behaviour only. Nei-ther view fits the available evidence. This paper describes the con-struction of a third alternative, minimal theory of mind, capable of explaining how those with limited cognitive resources or little con-ceptual sophistication may systematically succeed on tasks held to be acid tests for theory of mind including many false belief tasks.