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Clinical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind

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Perspectives on Linguistic Pragmatics

Part of the book series: Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology ((PEPRPHPS,volume 2))

Abstract

Theory of mind (ToM) describes the cognitive ability to attribute mental states both to one’s own mind and to the minds of others. In recent years, ToM has been credited with playing a significant role in developmental and acquired pragmatic disorders. In this way, ToM deficits have been linked to pragmatic deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (e.g. Martin and McDonald, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 311–328, 2004), emotional and behavioural disorders (e.g. Buitelaar et al., Development and Psychopathology, 11, 39–58, 1999), intellectual disability (e.g. Cornish et al., Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 49, 372–378, 2005), right-hemisphere damage (e.g. Winner et al., Brain and Language, 62, 89–106, 1998), schizophrenia (e.g. Brüne and Bodenstein, Schizophrenia Research, 75, 233–239, 2005), traumatic brain injury (e.g. McDonald and Flanagan, Neuropsychology, 18, 572–579, 2004) and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (e.g. Cuerva et al., Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology, 14, 153–158, 2001). In this chapter, I examine the central role of ToM reasoning in utterance interpretation. The chapter addresses what is known about ToM development during childhood and adolescence as well as changes in ToM skills as part of the aging process. The role of ToM in developmental and acquired pragmatic disorders is discussed. The contribution of ToM research into pragmatic disorders is critically evaluated. Finally, several ToM theories are examined. The question is addressed of which, if any, of these theories is able to capture the pragmatic features of utterance interpretation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In a study of the conversational responsiveness of children with SLI, Bishop et al. (2000: 177) make this same point as follows: ‘this study lends support to the notion that there is a subset of the language-impaired population who have broader communicative impairments, extending beyond basic difficulties in mastering language form, reflecting difficulty in responding to and expressing communicative intents’.

  2. 2.

    Abbeduto et al.’s finding lends support to the second of the views delineated by Tager-Flusberg (2000) in the main text. This is the view that language and verbal interaction play a vital role in the development of ToM.

  3. 3.

    Some studies have failed to find evidence of ToM impairments in patients with TBI. Bach et al. (2006) reported that the patients with TBI with and without behavioural disturbance in their study were unimpaired on ToM tasks.

  4. 4.

    There is some basis for this claim in the findings of several studies that different symptom profiles in schizophrenia appear to be associated with certain patterns of ToM and pragmatic deficits (e.g. Corcoran and Frith 1996; Montag et al. 2011).

  5. 5.

    Sally-Anne experiments derive their name from the two dolls—Sally and Anne—that are used in these false-belief tests. See an account of these tests by Baron-Cohen et al. (1985) in Sect. 3.

  6. 6.

    There is some evidence that these different ToM tests may not examine the same mentalising skills. For example, Spek et al. (2010) found low or absent correlations between the Eyes test and three other ToM tests used in their study of adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome.

  7. 7.

    It is worth remarking that the original proponent of modularity—Fodor (1983)—would disavow the attempt to locate ToM skills within a domain-specific cognitive module. For Fodor, such skills are located within a non-modularised central system in the mind. Frye (2000: 149) makes this same point as follows: ‘An odd aspect of the view that theory of mind is domain specific is that it is one Fodor’s (1983) own approach to modularity would explicitly disclaim’.

  8. 8.

    That one theory theorist, Alison Gopnik, cannot even conceive of modularity as permitting of developmental change is evident in her use of the word ‘indefeasible’ when characterising a ToM module. A ToM module, she states, is ‘a genetically-determined and indefeasible way of understanding the mind’ (Gopnik et al. 2000: 51).

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  1. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

    Louise Cummings

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  1. University of Messina/Palermo, Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Italy

    Alessandro Capone

  2. University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Franco Lo Piparo

  3. University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Marco Carapezza

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Cummings, L. (2013). Clinical Pragmatics and Theory of Mind. In: Capone, A., Lo Piparo, F., Carapezza, M. (eds) Perspectives on Linguistic Pragmatics. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01014-4_2

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