WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE

Heyes discounts findings of imitation and self recognition in nonhuman primates based on flimsy speculation and then indicates that even pos itive findings would not provide evidence of theory of mind. Her propo sed experiment is unlikely to work, however, because, even if the anim als have a theory of mind, a number of assumptions, not directly relat ed to theory of mind, must be made about their reasoning ability.