We argue that molecular visualization is a process that includes constructing a mental model. Current qualitative research has shown that participants working on a mental molecular visualization/rotation task invoke components of a mental model. Four of the components are static representations: referents, relations, results, and rules/syntax. The fifth component is dynamic: operation. Two exam...

Deontic assertions concern what one ought to do, may do, and ought not to do. This paper proposes a theory of their meanings and of how these meanings are represented in mental models. The meanings of deontic assertions refer to sets of permissible and impermissible states. An experiment corroborated the ability of individuals to list these states. The most salient were those corresponding to t...

Theory of mind deficits in schizophrenia have been parsed into mental state reasoning and mental state decoding components. We report that mental state decoding as measured by the 'Eyes task' better predicted social function than mental state reasoning as measured by the 'Hinting task' in 73 out-patients with chronic schizophrenia. Mental state decoding task performance also partly mediated the...

An implemented AI reasoning system called ATT-Meta is sketched. It addresses not only AI issues but also ones that are salient in psychology, philosophy, cognitive linguistics, discourse pragmatics and other disciplines. These issues include the Simulation-Theory/Theory-Theory debate and Fauconnier and Turner’s notion of conceptual blending. The system performs metaphor-based reasoning and reas...

Theory of mind research has looked at how learners infer an agent’s unobservable mental states from observable actions. However, such research has tended to neglect another observable source of data: the agent’s reactions to events. In particular, the agent’s facial reactions might provide important information about her mental states that are otherwise ambiguous given her actions. Here we pres...

This paper is a Critical examination of the fundamental role thinking plays in human life. The theory presented here is derived from my previously published Critical theory of the phenomenon of mind 1 . An understanding of that theory is propaedeutic for the arguments and deductions presented in the present treatise. A glossary of technical terminology used here is available. 2 By analogy with ...

As humans, we live in a remarkably complex social environment. One cognitive tool which helps us manage all this complexity is our theory of mind, the ability to reason about the mental states of others. By deducing what other people want, feel and think, we can understand their actions, predict how our actions will influence them, and decide how we should behave to be successful. Theory of min...

This article describes a theory that uses mental models to integrate deductive, inductive, and probabilistic reasoning. It spells out the main principles of the theory and illustrates them with examples from various domains. It shows how models underlie inductions, explanations, estimates of probabilities, and informal algorithms. In all these cases, a central principle is that the mind represe...

Japanese Morita therapy is discussed to highlight its culturally and theoretically unique perspectives on human nature and client change. Key features of this theory are: (a) theory of the shinkeishitsu (nervous) trait, (b) multiple-dimensional model of causes and treatment of shinkeishitsu neurosis, (c) theory of mental attachment, (d) reframing anxiety into constructive desires, (e) emphasis ...