Is implicit Theory of Mind a robust cognitive phenomenon? Large-scale, multi-lab replication and validation studies with children and adults

心理理论(Tom)是将信念和欲望等心理状态归因于他人和我们自己的能力，是人性的基础。传统上，人们认为汤姆在学龄前几年发展缓慢，建立在语言和执行功能上。然而，最近，一项新的研究，如观察时间，给这一领域带来了革命性的变化，表明内隐形式的Tom可能很早就出现了，并在整个生命周期中继续自动和无意识地运行。根据这些发现，已经形成了影响深远的理论解释。然而，这项研究的证据仍然相对稀少，通常来自小样本的研究。第一次复制尝试最近产生了非常复杂的结果，有不复制、部分复制和成功复制的复杂模式。同样，关键的验证研究(解决这些任务是否真的利用TOM的问题)产生了不同的结果。需要的，以及当前项目将实现的是对隐含TOM的大规模、预先注册的多实验室复制和验证研究。在发展心理学多实验室复制研究平台ManyBabies的保护伞下，我们建立了一个国际学者联盟，其中包括原始研究的作者和来自不同理论视角的众多领先的TOM研究人员。在我们的协调和领导下，该联盟将共同设计、计划、预注册、实施、进行、分析和发布中央隐性TOM范例的系统复制和验证研究，对象为幼儿和成人。本项目的结果将为该领域提供坚实的经验基础，使我们能够最终判断内隐心理理论是否是一种健壮的现象，如果是，它的性质和认知基础是什么。

Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to attribute mental states such as beliefs and desires to others and ourselves, is fundamental to human nature. Traditionally, ToM was thought to develop slowly over the preschool years, building on language and executive function. Recently, however, new research with measures such as looking time has revolutionized the field, suggesting that implicit forms of ToM may be present very early and keep on operating automatically and unconsciously throughout the lifespan. Far-reaching theoretical accounts have been developed from of these findings. However, the evidence from this research is still relatively sparse, often from studies with small samples. First replication attempts have recently produced very mixed findings, with complex patterns of non-, partial and successful replications. Similarly, critical validation studies (addressing the questions whether these tasks really tap ToM) have produced diverging results.What is needed, and what the current project will realize, are large-scale, pre-registered multi-lab replication and validation studies of implicit ToM. Under the umbrella of “ManyBabies”, a platform for multi-lab replication research in developmental psychology, we have founded an international consortium of scholars, including authors of the original studies and numerous leading ToM researchers from diverging theoretical perspectives. Coordinated and led by us, this consortium will collectively design, plan, pre-register, implement, conduct, analyze and publish systematic replication and validation studies of the central implicit ToM paradigms with young children and adults. Results from this project will provide a solid empirical basis for the field that allows us to judge conclusively whether implicit ToM is a robust phenomenon, and if so, what its nature and cognitive foundations are.