Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Several theories about Theory of Mind (ToM) have beenproposed. The most well-known of these are Theory Theoryand Simulation Theory, although alternative and hybridtheories do exist. One such theory, proposed by Bach (2011,2014), is based on the Structure-Mapping theory of analogy,which has been shown to play a key role in cognitivedevelopment. There is evidence that children are more likely topass false belief tasks when trained using stories that are easyto compare via structural alignment, as opposed to stories thatare difficult to compare in this way (Hoyos, Horton & Gentner,2015). This paper shows how a computational model based onBach’s account can provide an explanation for the Hoyos et al.training study and proposes directions for future research onhuman subjects.