Mind Modeling: A ToM-Based Framework for Personalization
2026-05-11 • Human-Computer Interaction
Human-Computer Interaction
AI summaryⓘ
The authors explain that traditional user modeling focuses mainly on what people do, like their actions and preferences, without clearly considering what they might be thinking or feeling. They propose "mind modeling," which tries to guess people's mental states, such as beliefs and emotions, based on their behavior. This approach uses ideas from Theory of Mind to better understand and personalize interactions over time. They also introduce a framework called M3 that helps update these mental state guesses as interactions happen, and they show how this works with an example.
User ModelingTheory of MindMental StatesPersonalizationEmbodied InteractionBehavioral EvidenceMentalisationCognitive ModelingLongitudinal Interaction
Authors
Cristina Gena
Abstract
User modeling has traditionally relied on inferring preferences, traits, or intents from observable behaviour. While effective in many adaptive systems, this paradigm treats behaviour as the primary object of modeling and leaves mental-state attribution implicit. This assumption becomes limiting in socially situated and longitudinal interaction, where behaviour must be interpreted in context and over time. We introduce mind modeling, a perspective in which user modeling is grounded in the explicit and revisable attribution of mental states, including beliefs, intentions, emotions, and knowledge. Drawing on Theory of Mind (ToM), this approach treats behaviour as evidence for hypotheses about internal states, supporting personalization that is more interpretable and coherent across interaction episodes. We present M3, a conceptual framework that integrates perception, mentalisation, and action within a unified structure, enabling the continuous update of mental-state hypotheses in embodied interaction. We further illustrate this perspective through an embodied interaction trace, providing an initial operationalization of mind modeling in practice.