Theory of Mind and Humanoid Robots From a Lifespan Perspective

What is it about?

This mini-review focuses on some relevant issues about the relationship between Theory of Mind and humanoid robots.

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Why is it important?

Humanoid robots are employed in different everyday-life contexts: it seems relevant to question whether the relations between human beings and humanoids can be characterized by a mode of interaction typical of the relationships between human beings, i.e. the attribution of mental states. Since Theory of Mind development continuously undergoes changes from early childhood to late adulthood, a lifespan perspective is adopted. Contributions of the literature are analyzed by organizing them around the bipartition "aspect" and "mental states." This bipartition arises from the consideration that the "natural" way in which infants of the human species construct the Theory of the Mind starts from the understanding of the mental states of others in the body to which it will be added in succession the understanding of mental states.