FIGURE 2.

Thinking through other minds. This Figure depicts a set of heuristic equations that describe the kind of free energy minimization hypothesized to underwrite the acquisition and production of learned cultural behaviors via the coupled dynamics sketched in the main text (full equations in Figure 1). In the context of human communication, coupled dynamics are energized by an adaptive prior for alignment. The adaptive prior for alignment specifies the characteristically enhanced precision of the hypothesis that ‘we’ exist. This prior motivates similar agents to actively couple their respective actions a_n and sensations s_n. Via the processes discussed in the main text, this statistical coupling of sensation and action enables each individual to reliably align with (i.e., infer) the hidden states μ_n of conspecific n. This circular process brings about a process of cultural niche construction that creates, maintains, and modifies a set of predictable epistemic (i.e., deontic) resources, η. These specify a set of high value (i.e., predictable) observation-policy mappings, which are used to disambiguate the mental states of conspecifics (Veissière et al., forthcoming). One important class of deontic resource is the set of observation-policy mappings that underwrite a system of communicative constructions (i.e., form-meaning pairings). This means that the use of communicative constructions plays a critical role in enabling agents with an adaptive prior for alignment to effectively disambiguate external states. This is because an agent’s external states are constituted, in part, by the internal, mental states of another agent (and vice versa). This follows from the fact that external states cause sensation; for an agent equipped with an adaptive prior for alignment, inferring the motion of external states entails inferring other agents’ hidden states. The production and observation of communicative constructions is useful because it effectively and flexibly guides ‘regimes’ of attention that enable species unique forms of cultural learning (see Ramstead et al., 2016; Veissière et al., forthcoming). Diachronically, communicative constructions are finessed by a community of agents via the inheritance and (intended or unintended) modification of constructions during either learning or usage. Adapted with permission from Veissière et al. (forthcoming).