View source for Mental Simulation

{{Term|Mental Simulation|The Mental [[Simulation]] [[theory]] is a [[theory]] of everyday human psychological [[competence]]: that is, of the skills and resources people routinely call on in the anticipation, explanation, and social coordination of behavior. The Mental [[Simulation]] [[theory]] holds that we represent the mental states and processes of others by mentally simulating them, or generating similar states and processes in ourselves: thus, for example, anticipating another's solution to a theoretical or practical problem by solving the problem ourselves (with adjustments for evident disparities, e.g., in skill level). The basic idea is that if the resources our own brain uses to guide our own behavior can be modified to work as representations of other people, then we have no need to store general information about what makes people tick: We just do the ticking for them. [[Simulation]] is thus said to be process-driven rather than theory-driven.<ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/folkpsych-simulation/ (12 January 2011)</ref>}}



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