Here is an interesting article on Theory of Mind that Sperber just posted on his website. They apparently found children as young as 13 months possess 'an incipient metrepresentational ability'.
Abstract:
In two experiments, we investigated whether 13-month-old infants expect agents to behave in a way consistent with information to which they have been exposed. Infants watched animations in which an animal was either provided information or prevented from gathering information about the actual location of an object. The animal then searched successfully or failed to retrieve it. Infants’ looking times suggest that they expected searches to be effective when—and only when—the agent had had access to the relevant information. This result supports the view that infants’ possess an incipient metarepresentational ability that permits them to attribute beliefs to agents. We discuss the viability of more conservative explanations and the relationship between this early ability and later forms of ‘theory of mind’ that appear only after children have become experienced verbal communicators.
From www.dan.sperber.com
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Published Collectively by the Members of the Copenhagen Circle for the study of Culture and Cognition
.
Email Subscription
Links of Interest
Books and Articles of Interest
- Boyer, Pascal. 2001. Religion Explained. New York: Basic Books.
Contributors
- Anders Lisdorf
- Andreas Lieberoth
- Christian Kordt Højbjerg
- Gabriel Levy
- Jesper Sørensen
- Peter Westh
Feeder Subscription
1 comment:
I personally am not surprised, because I think that TOM is a matter of degree, than a matter of either or. That would also explain why some apes can do TOM kinds of things. Even birds can! The thing is that no one does it as often and as well as humans. Evolutionarily it would alo make sense that a previously existing cognitive mechanism was gradually boosted, rather than build readymade for humans.
Post a Comment