MAKE-BELIEVE AND MACHINE MINDS: EXAMINING PRETENSE, THEORY OF MIND, AND BELIEFS WHEN MENTALIZING ROBOTS

Author

Sarah Emily Sweezy

Year of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Experimental Psychology

Department or School/College

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Rachel L. Severson

Commitee Members

Stephanie Dimitroff, Allen Szalda-Petree, Rachel Williamson, Stephen Yoshimura

Keywords

anthropomorphism, child-robot interaction, fantasy understanding, mentalizing, pretense, theory of mind

Abstract

Children can infer the mental states of other people and attribute mental states to non-human others. While children may do so by imagining the minds of others, some argue children are merely pretending when they attribute mental states to entities such as robots. The current study examined whether children were pretending in their mental state attributions. Participants (3-5 years; N = 45) were randomly assigned to an agent condition (child, robot, doll) and completed fantasy understanding and mentalizing measures. After participants completed the mentalizing measure (pre-incentive), they completed the measure a second time but were incentivized to provide their actual beliefs with earning a prize (post-incentive). Participants also completed a false belief task and a willingness to engage in pretense task. The current study found children could not be incentivized to change their mental state attributions. However, false belief understanding was important for incentivized change of mentalizing and accuracy on fantasy understanding. Children who were categorized as having a false belief understanding increased their attributions, regardless of the agent. Children who were categorized as not yet developed a false belief understanding were more likely to increase their accuracy on fantasy understanding. Taken together, the current findings suggest the ability to understand the beliefs of others play a role in how children were incentivized in their mental state attributions or fantasy understanding.

Recommended Citation

Sweezy, Sarah Emily, "MAKE-BELIEVE AND MACHINE MINDS: EXAMINING PRETENSE, THEORY OF MIND, AND BELIEFS WHEN MENTALIZING ROBOTS" (2025). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12471.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12471