Real-life interactions and the eight sources of information framework (8-SIF): a reply to Champagne-Lavau and Moreau (2013)

Abstract

In this response to the comment by Champagne-Lavau and Moreau (2013), we acknowledge the importance of ecological mentalizing assessments that allow direct interactions between the agent and the person to whom mental states are attributed. Furthermore, we clarify that our model, the 8 sources of information framework (8-SIF; Achim, Guitton, Jackson, Boutin, & Monetta, 2013), aims to document the sources of information on which mentalizing processes can act, rather than specifying the numerous affective and cognitive processes involved in mentalizing. We argue that the sources of information that can contribute to mentalizing judgments during real or realistic interactions are included in the 8-SIF. The interaction may have an impact on the amount of information from each source that is available to the agent, but gaining additional information from a given source does not change the type of information or its classification to a specific source in the 8-SIF. The point raised by Champagne-Lavau and Moreau calls for a new comprehensive model of social cognition that focuses on the mentalizing processes, which would nicely complement our model of the sources of information on which these processes can act, the 8-SIF.