ABOVE: Rhesus macaques, pictured here on Cayo Santiago near Puerto Rico, offer researchers a chance to study theory of mind in nonhuman animals.
LAUREN BRENT
People who live with animals often feel these creatures have some perception of our intentions and feelings—for example, that a pet senses when we’re sad and tries to cheer us up. But finding out whether this is true or unwarranted anthropomorphising requires a mind-reading ability that has so far remained outside the grasp of psychology and neuroscience. In research with humans, investigators can simply ask study participants about their perceptions of others’ beliefs and motivations. With nonhuman animals, how does one tease out the ability to infer another creature’s point of view, known as “theory of mind,” from simply responding to cues that the animal has learned to associate with a particular outcome?
Michael Platt, who has studied cognition in monkeys for decades, and his team, ...
