Domain-specific and domain-general processes in social perception--A complementary approach

Abstract

In this brief discussion, we explicate and evaluate Heyes and colleagues' deflationary approach to interpreting apparent evidence of domain-specific processes for social perception. We argue that the deflationary approach sheds important light on how functionally specific processes in social perception can be subserved at least in part by domain-general processes. On the other hand, we also argue that the fruitfulness of this approach has been unnecessarily hampered by a contrastive conception of the relationship between domain-general and domain-specific processes. As an alternative, we propose a complementary conception: the identification of domain-general processes that are engaged in instances of social perception can play a positive, structuring role by adding additional constraints to be accounted for in modelling the domain-specific processes that are also involved in such instances.

Keywords: Action understanding; Associative learning; Gaze cueing; Perspective-taking; Social perception; Spatial cueing.