Mind-reading is also referred to as “mentalizing”, and it is a psychological concept used to describe understanding what others think. It helps us understand another person’s viewpoint.

Mind-reading is different from empathy. It involves understanding other people’s thoughts or knowledge (“John knows where the keys are ”), whereas empathy involves understanding other's emotions (“John feels angry that his wallet was stolen”). We have not adequately distinguished mind-reading from empathy, so most psychological tests mix up the two concepts.

Although the processes are related, it is important to differentiate them to understand how people operate socially. It is also important for understanding psychopathy. Psychopaths are often good at mind-reading but bad at empathy. This means they can manipulate others while remaining emotionally detached from their actions.

Differentiating between mind-reading and empathy also helps us understand conditions like autism, linked to social differences. People with autism often have major difficulties with mind-reading and more minor difficulties in empathy.

see:

Singer, T. (2006). The neuronal basis and ontogeny of empathy and mind reading: review of literature and Mind-reading implications for future research. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 30(6), 855-863.

implications in

Lonigro, A., Laghi, F., Baiocco, R., & Baumgartner, E. (2014). Mind reading skills and empathy: Evidence for nice and nasty ToM behaviors reading implications in school-aged children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23(3), 581-590.

You are not "reading" what their cognitive processes are. You instead assume what they may be thinking based on your own experience and your knowledge. It would be inaccurate to term this "seeing/reading someone else's mind".

But technically, you are more of a behaviour-reader. You are looking, both consciously and unconsciously, at behavioural cues to infer their cognitive processes. We as humans do this all the time, regardless of skill level.

Hi Adam, empathy is concept fairly well approached by neuroscience. They have been studying Mirror-Neuron Systems and there you may find a good biological explanation of the complex psychological process of empathy. According to that, our central nervous system allows us to experience or think in a similar way as an observed person do because observer and observed activate similar nervous system areas an neural networks, allowing this way the experience of emotions or activate similar cognitive processes. Try with a paper as: Shillcock, R., Thomas, J. & Bailes, R. (2019). Mirror Neurons, Prediction and Hemispheric Coordination: The Prioritizing of Intersubjectivity Over ‘Intrasubjectivity’. Axiomates, 29, 139 – 153