Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1: Theory of Mind Now and Then: Evolutionary and Historical Perspectives -- Theory of Mind and Theory of Minds in Literature Keith Oatley -- Social Minds in Little Dorrit Alan Palmer -- The Way We Imagine Mark Turner -- Theory of Mind and Fictions of Embodied Transparency Lisa Zunshine -- 2: Mind Reading and Literary Characterization -- Theory of the Murderous Mind: Understanding the Emotional Intensity of John Doyle's Interpretation of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd Diana Calderazzo -- Distraction as Liveliness of Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Characterization in Jane Austen Natalie Phillips -- Sancho Panza's Theory of Mind Howard Mancing -- Is Perceval Autistic?: Theory of Mind in the Conte del Graal Paula Leverage -- 3: Theory of Mind and Literary / Linguistic Structure -- Whose Mind's Eye? Free Indirect Discourse and the Covert Narrator in Marlene Streeruwitz's Nachwelt Jennifer Marston William -- Attractors, Trajectors, and Agents in Racine's "Récit de Théramène" Allen G. Wood -- The Importance of Deixis and Attributive Style for the Study of Theory of Mind: The Example of William Faulkner's Disturbed Characters Ineke Bockting -- 4: Alternate States of Mind -- Alternative Theory of Mind for Arti.cial Brains: A Logical Approach to Interpreting Alien Minds Orley K. Marron -- Reading Phantom Minds: Marie Darrieussecq's Naissance des fantômes and Ghosts' Body Language Mikko Keskinen -- Theory of Mind and Metamorphoses in Dreams: Jekyll & Hyde, and The Metamorphosis Richard Schweickert and Zhuangzhuang Xi -- Mother/Daughter Mind Reading and Ghostly Intervention in Toni Morrison's Beloved Klarina Priborkin -- 5: Theoretical, Philosophical, Political Approaches.

Why We Read Fiction offers a lucid overview of the most exciting area of research in contemporary cognitive psychology known as "Theory of Mind" and discusses its implications for literary studies. It covers a broad range of fictional narratives, from Richardson s Clarissa, Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment, and Austen s Pride and Prejudice to Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Nabokov's Lolita, and Hammett s The Maltese Falcon. Zunshine's surprising new interpretations of well-known literary texts and popular cultural representations constantly prod her readers to rethink their own interest in fictional narrative. Written for a general audience, this study provides a jargon-free introduction to the rapidly growing interdisciplinary field known as cognitive approaches to literature and culture.

A concise and readable review of the extensive research into children’s understanding of what other people think and feel, providing a comprehensive overview of 25 years of research into theory of mind.

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Literary Studies applies developments in cognitive science to a wide range of literary texts that span multiple historical periods and numerous national literary traditions.

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive review of the burgeoning literature on theory of mind (TOM) after the preschool years and the first to integrate this literature with other approaches to the study of social understanding. By highlighting the relationship between early and later developments, the book provides readers with a greater understanding of what we know and what we still need to know about higher-order TOM. Although the focus is on development in typical populations, development in individuals with autism and in older adults is also explored to give readers a deeper understanding of possible problems in development. Examining the later developments of TOM gives readers a greater understanding of: Developments that occur after the age of 5. Individual differences in rate of development and atypical development and the effects of those differences. The differences in rate of mastery which become more marked, and therefore more informative, with increased age. What it means to have a “good theory of mind.” The differences between first- and second- order theory of mind development in preschoolers, older children, adolescents, and adults. The range of beliefs available to children at various ages, providing a fuller picture of what is meant by “understanding of belief.” After the introduction, the literature on first-order developments during the preschool period is summarized to serve as a backdrop for understanding more advanced developments. Chapter 3 is devoted to the second-order false belief task. Chapters 4 and 5 introduce a variety of other measures for understanding higher-level forms of TOM thereby providing readers with greater insight into other cognitive and social developmental outcomes. Chapter 6 discusses the relation between children’s TOM abilities and other aspects of their development. Chapters 7 and 8 place the work in a historical context. First, the research on the development of social and mental worlds that predated the emergence of TOM is examined. Chapter 8 then provides a comparative treatment of the two literatures and how they complement one another. Ideal as a supplement in graduate or advanced undergraduate courses in theory of mind, cognitive development, or social development taught in psychology and education. Veteran researchers will also appreciate this book‘s unique synthesis of this critical research.

The 'theory of mind' framework has been the fastest growing body of empirical research in contemporary psychology. It has given rise to a range of positions on what it takes to relate to others as intentional beings. This book brings together disparate strands of ToM research, lays out historical roots of the idea and indicates better alternatives

Turner argues that story, projection, and parable precede grammar, that language follows from these mental capacities as a consequence. Language, he concludes, is the child of the literary mind.

Current mainstream opinion in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind holds that all aspects of human mind and consciousness are generated by physical processes occurring in brains. Views of this sort have dominated recent scholarly publication. The present volume, however, demonstrates empirically that this reductive materialism is not only incomplete but false. The authors systematically marshal evidence for a variety of psychological phenomena that are extremely difficult, and in some cases clearly impossible, to account for in conventional physicalist terms. Topics addressed include phenomena of extreme psychophysical influence, memory, psychological automatisms and secondary personality, near-death experiences and allied phenomena, genius-level creativity, and 'mystical' states of consciousness both spontaneous and drug-induced. The authors further show that these rogue phenomena are more readily accommodated by an alternative 'transmission' or 'filter' theory of mind/brain relations advanced over a century ago by a largely forgotten genius, F. W. H. Myers, and developed further by his friend and colleague William James. This theory, moreover, ratifies the commonsense conception of human beings as causally effective conscious agents, and is fully compatible with leading-edge physics and neuroscience. The book should command the attention of all open-minded persons concerned with the still-unsolved mysteries of the mind.

This book establishes the study of ToM in adults as a new field of enquiry and identifies and addresses the key questions that need to be asked by cognitive psychologists to develop a new cognitive model of ToM.

This book develops an original control theory of the emotions and related affective states, providing new perspectives on how the mind works as a whole. Discussing pains and pleasures, moods and behaviours, and character and personality, the book will be important for readers interested in the philosophy and cognitive science of emotion.