Interesting theory of mind experiment

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I didn't really interpret personality traits to any of them. I could see that the triangles were fighting, but I had no idea why. No anthropomorphizing at all. I was kind of surprised when I read the thread after and saw some of the scenarios people came up with. Or Magnus_Rex' right above mine. I did interpret the square as a house, although I think I lost that at the same time I lost everything else. I certainly have no idea what was up with the broken square at the end either.

I could sit down with a description what happens in the cartoon and take time and produce a scene that takes the physical elements into account and write it as fiction, but this goes into a different process that I can never mobilize on the fly or in a typical social situation. Admittedly, this is much harder to read than a typical social situation.

rabidmonkey4262 wrote:

That was exactly my problem. I anthropomorphized the shapes to the point that I perceived a social interaction was going on, but not to the point where I ascribed identities such as father, mother and child.

I saw the ball as someone who's stirred and started an argument between the triangles, the big triangle is very aggressive and the ball and small triangle want to stay away. They are friends and walk together, then leave the big triangle alone and the big triangle gets his hair off and destroys his house.

It looked like they were fighting and trying to get in the box and at times it looked like two triangles were humping each other.

The small triangle is a child who brought home a new pet (the circle). The large triangle is a father who does not want the pet. While he is yelling at the child for bringing home a new pet, the pet gets into the house and the father must catch it to get it out. Then, for whatever reason, he starts chasing the child and the pet around the house, but they run off and the father gets mad and throws a tantrum, breaking some stuff in the house.

Yeah, the last part didn't make much sense...

All I got was, the large square/rectangle was a house, and the big triangle was a bear. And the other shapes were probably some other animals. And then I just got distracted by the actual action and couldn't come up with any backstory or elaboration, much less personality. It was just shapes moving around with some vague plot. I'm sure if I watched it several times and paused as I went along I could write up a pretty good story, but I get the feeling that wasn't really the point of the whole thing.

All I got for a long time was a big rectangle and a small circle, and a small and a big triangle moving randomly about.
Then at some point, I realised that the big triangle was a bully.
Mostly there was just too much movement on the screen for me to focus.

For me it was the shape of a face, the triangles two eyes and the ball a nose, changing expression continuously to picasso-level.

I just saw a bunch of shapes moving around. I couldn't figure out what they were thinking, and I sure as crap didn't see them as having personalities.

Two "people" wanted to play with a ball. One said no. A whole lot of confusing stuff happened that I couldn't follow. They were fighting over the ball and chasing each other. At the end, one of them got away with the ball and the other one was angry.

Personalities: ??

It was moving too quick, and I kept being confused as to whether the round thing was supposed to be a ball or a person (I thought at one point it may be a person because it was moving around seemingly of it's own accord without being hit or having any force to move it).

ping pong? after a while i decided the small circle was a dog, the little triangle was a kid and the big triangle was the dad(sexist i know) and the big triangle was beating them up then at the middle- end the story reverted to ping pong. reading the other posts the broken home visual metaphor makes sense. how are we supposed to get personalities from that tiny clip though? its so random and the only reason i assigned meaning to it is because i was supposed to .

Watch it and tried to respond without reading what anyone else had written.

Gave up - couldn't make much out other than a grumpy mean shape chased and shoved another shape while it's friend snook into his house - didn't undestand why. Mean shape gets angry and breaks house/box having been bothered by others.

I was suprised by the detail some others had put in and wondered where that comes from. I see myself as having a lazy mind that can't be bothered to even try and apply that much detail to something that means nothing to me! It's too exhausting!

That's the whole challenge. It was part of a research study done back in 2000 that wanted to examine how aspies understand social situations.

This thread exemplifies the discrepancy between the social understanding of an NT and the social understanding of an aspie. I showed this clip to an NT, and she was able to come up with a complete elaborate story, whereas the aspies were only able to come up with partial stories and had a difficult time doing it.

Here is the study: Social Attribution Task and here is some more relevant info: Tony Attwood's site

I give credit to Verdandi for finding the links.

Actions:

* Parent triangle gets in from outing, closes door, and sits down in house, intending to relax.
* Baby triangle and circle friend come to the house, involved in a dispute. Baby triangle is quite agitated, and begins to pace around.
* Parent triangle emerges from house, assuming a position of authority. Baby triangle is asked about all the fuss and noise, and delivers quite a cheeky or ill-tempered response. Parent triangle disciplines baby triangle, while baby triangle continues to answer back. Meanwhile, circle friend sneaks into the house.
* Parent triangle eventually backs baby triangle against the wall to give it his/her final word. Baby triangle then runs to the back of the house to sulk while parent triangle searches around the side of the house for circle friend. Parent triangle comes round the back to ask baby triangle where circle friend is, and then heads towards the door.
* Parent triangle closes door, and finds circle friend cowering in corner. Parent triangle begins to yell at and threaten circle friend, while circle friend panics and attempts to run away. Circle friend eventually succeeds in escaping from the house, aided by baby triangle.
* Parent triangle bangs down door, and chases baby triangle and circle friend. Parent triangle briefly checks the house to determine whether the two other shapes have hid in there, and the chase then begins again. Baby triangle and circle friend manage to run out of sight, and parent triangle, in frustration, destroys the house.

Personalities:

Parent triangle: Authoritarian, and also very temperamental. Keen to see that baby triangle and circle friend toe the line, but given to episodes of frustration and instability. Also quite an intimidating character.
Baby triangle: Playful, though headstrong and quick-tempered. Doesn't have a great deal of respect for authority, though wary of parent triangle's intimidation and temper outbursts. Possibly prone to arguing with circle friend, but a fundamentally loyal companion.
Circle friend: Nervous, subdued, and possibly put down by baby triangle quite often, though able to defend his/herself when baby triangle kicks up a fuss. Rather dependent on baby triangle's comparative nerve. Cowardly, and quickly made terrified by parent triangle's presence.

I saw two triangles, one which seemed to be following the other for part of the video, a ball which bounced around and a box with an opening which split into bars at the end of it.

What on earth was that? I turned it off after like 5 seconds. I just couldn't watch it. Too much going on that was bugging me. The box thing was like eating balls or triangles and barfing them back up or something. I dunno.