arXiv:2606.12721cs.AI2026-06被引 1

提出心智推理的计算框架,用图模型推断他人信念来源与可信度。

The Theory of Mind Utility: Formal Specification of a Mentalizing Mechanism

  • 构建局部认知世界模型(LEWM)图结构,追踪信息传递顺序与可信度
  • 通过候选模型评估实现对他人信念的置信度判断,支持递归推理
  • 生成可验证的失败预测,适用于各类社会认知任务

推断他人信念不仅需解读表面信号,还需追踪信息来源、传递顺序及可信度。本文提出的理论心智效用(ToM-U)在计算层面形式化了这一认知状态推断问题,明确心智推理的目标与动机,而不依赖具体算法或神经实现。其核心是构建局部认知世界模型(LEWM),一种有向类型图,用于表示代理者、状态节点及其之间的认知关系;通过对比观察行为,评估多个候选LEWM直至获得足够置信度。五个形式定义分别规定了LEWM结构、包含有序信息访问历史的代理节点属性、有限递归推理机制、三种推理程序以及捕捉推理失败痕迹的残差函数。与贝叶斯心智理论等预设信念状态的模型不同,ToM-U不假设信念,而是推导得出;也不同于模拟论和理论-理论缺乏形式推断工具。该架构生成具有方向性、可证伪的心理推理失败预测,源于模型结构而非附加假设,定位为下游目标推断等社会认知过程的通用上游机制。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Inferring others' beliefs requires more than reading surface signals; it requires tracking who told them what, in what order, and how credibly. The Theory of Mind Utility (ToM-U) formalizes this epistemic state inference problem at the computational level of analysis, specifying what mentalizing computes and why without commitment to algorithmic or neural implementation. ToM-U achieves this by constructing Local Epistemic World Models (LEWMs) -- directed typed graphs that represent agents, state nodes, and the epistemic relationships among them -- and evaluating discrete candidate LEWMs against observed behavior until one achieves sufficient confidence. Five formal definitions specify the LEWM structure, agent node properties including ordered information access history, a bounded proliferation mechanism for recursive mentalizing, three inference procedures, and a residue function that captures the structured trace left by failed mentalizing attempts. ToM-U differs from Bayesian Theory of Mind and adjacent formal accounts, which presuppose rather than derive belief states, and from simulation theory and theory-theory, which lack a formal apparatus for epistemic state inference. The architecture generates directional, falsifiable predictions about mentalizing failure that follow from structural properties of the model rather than auxiliary assumptions, and positions ToM-U as a domain-agnostic mechanism upstream of goal inference and other downstream social cognitive processes.

心智理论认知建模推理机制

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