There are numerous theories of ToM, but they can be usefully divided into two broad categories (or hybrids of them) - theory-theory models which posit ToM involves following of innate or learned social rules and simulation theory models which argue ToM is the product of mental simulations that enable the prediction of other people’s behaviour. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) offers a completely different way to understand ToM, and more generally human language and cognition. RFT sees ToM as a type of learned, generalised relational responding under the influence of arbitrary contextual cues. Humans learn relational responding skills in early childhood and RFT argues it is their subsequent generalisation that forms the basis of increasingly complex cognitive and social functioning, including ToM.
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