Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:13:33.088Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Developing the Idea of Intentionality: Children's Theories of Mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Alison Gopnik
Alison Gopnik*
Affiliation:
Dept. of Psychology, Tolman Hall, University of California/Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

At least since Augustine, philosophers have constructed developmental just-so stories about the origins of certain concepts. In these just-so stories, philosophers tell us how children must develop these concepts. However, philosophers have by and large neglected the empirical data about how children actually do develop their ideas about the world. At best they have used information about children in an anecdotal and unsystematic, though often illuminating, way (see, for example, Matthews, 1980).

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 89 - 113
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bates, E. Benigni, L. Bretherton, I. Camaioni, L. & Volterra, V.. The Emergence of Symbols: Cognition-Communication in Infancy (New York: Academic Press 1979).Google Scholar
Berthoud-Pappandropolo, I. ‘An Experimental Study of Children's Ideas About Language,’ in Sinclair, A. Jarvella, R. & Levelt, P. eds., The Child's Conception of Language (New York: Springer-Verlag 1978).Google Scholar
Bloom, L. & Capatides, J.. ‘Sources of Meaning and the Acquisition of Complex Syntax,’ Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 43 (1987) 112-28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bower, T.G.R. Development in Infancy, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman 1982).Google Scholar
Bretherton, I. & Beeghly, M.. ‘Talking about Internal States: The Acquisition of an Explicit Theory of Mind,’ Developmental Psychology 18 (1982) 906-21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. ‘From Communication to Language-A Psychological Perspective,’ Cognition 3 (1975) 255-88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, J. Child's Talk (New York: W.W. Norton 1983).Google Scholar
Carey, S. Conceptual Change in Childhood (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press 1986).Google Scholar
Carey, S. ‘Conceptual Differences Between Children and Adults,’ Mind and Language 3, 3 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandler, M.J. ‘Doubt and Developing Theories of Mind,’ in Astington, J.W. Harris, P.L. & Olson, D.R. eds., Developing Theories of Mind (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press 1988).Google Scholar
Chandler, M.J. & Helm, D.. ‘Developmental Changes in the Contribution of Shared Experience to Role-Taking Competence,’ International Journal of Behavioral Development 7 (1984) 145-56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Churchland, P. ‘Eliminative Materialism and Propositional Attitudes,’ Journal of Philosophy 78, 2 (1981).Google Scholar
Churchland, P. Matter and Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/ M.I.T. Press 1984).Google Scholar
Cohen, L.B. & Strauss, M.. ‘Concept Acquisition in the Human Infant,’ Child Development 50 (1979) 419-24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. ‘The Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme,’ Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 47 (1974).Google Scholar
Davidson, D. Essays on Actions and Events (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1980).Google Scholar
Dretske, F. Knowledge and the Flow of Information (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press 1979).Google Scholar
Fenson, L. ‘Development Trends for Action and Speech in Pretend Play,’ in Bretherton, I. ed., Symbolic Play (New York: Academic Press 1984) 249-70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flavell, J.H. ‘The Development of Knowledge About Visual Perception,’ in H. E., Howe & C. B., Keasey eds., Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1977: Social Cognitive Development Vol. 25 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1978) 43–76.Google Scholar
Flavell, J.H. ‘The Development of Children's Knowledge About the Mind: From Cognitive Connections to Mental Representations,’ in Astington, J.W. Harris, P.L. & Olson, D.R. eds., Developing Theories of Mind (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press 1988).Google Scholar
Flavell, J.H. Everett, B.A. Croft, K. & Flavell, E.R.. ‘Young Children's Knowledge About Visual Perception: Further Evidence for the Level 1-Level 2 Distinction,’ Developmental Psychology 17 (1981) 99–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flavell, J.H. Flavell, M. & Green, M.. ‘Development of the Appearance-Reality Distinction,’ Cognitive Psychology 15 (1983) 95–120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Flavell, J.H. Green, F.L. & Flavell, E.R.. Development of Knowledge About the Appearance-Reality Distinction. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development No. 212 51, 1 (1986).Google Scholar
Fodor, J. The Language of Thought (New York: Thomas Crowell 1975).Google Scholar
Fodor, J. ‘Methodological Solipsism Considered as a Research Strategy in Cognitive Psychology,’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3, 1 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forguson, L. & Gopnik, A.. ‘The Ontogeny of Common Sense,’ in Astington, J.W. Harris, P.L. & Olson, D.R. eds., Developing Theories of Mind (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press 1988).Google Scholar
Gopnik, A. ‘Words and Plans: Early Language and the Development of Intelligent Action,’ Journal of Child Language 91 (1982) 303-18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, A. ‘The Acquisition of “Gone” and the Development of the Object Concept,’ Journal of Child Language 11 (1984a) 273-92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, A. ‘Conceptual and Semantic Change in Scientists and Children: Why There are no Semantic Universals,’ Linguistics 20 (1984b) 163-79.Google Scholar
Gopnik, A. & Astington, J.. ‘Children's Understanding of Representational Change and its Relation to the Understanding of False-Belief and the Appearance-Reality Distinction,’ Child Development 59 (1988) 26–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gopnik, A. ‘Conceptual Change as Theory Change: The Case of Object-Permanence,’ Mind and Language 3, 3 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, A. & Graf, P.. ‘Knowing How You Know: Young Children's Ability to Identify and Remember the Sources of Their Beliefs,’ Child Development 59 (1988) 1366-71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, A. & Meltzoff, A.N.. ‘Relations Between Semantic and Cognitive Development in the One-Word Stage: The Specificity Hypothesis,’ Child Development 57 (1986) 1040-53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogrefe, G. Wimmer, H. & Perner, J.. ‘Ignorance Versus False Belief: A Developmental Lag in Attribution of Epistemic States,’ Child Development 57 (1986) 567-82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, J. Holyoak, K. Nisbett, R. & Thagard, P.. Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning and Discovery (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press 1986).Google Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. ‘From Meta-Processes to Conscious Access: Evidence from Children's Metalinguistic and Repair Data,’ Cognition 23 (1986) 95–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karmiloff-Smith, A. ‘The Child is a Theoretician, not an Inductivist,’ Mind and Language 3, 3 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keil, F. ‘The Acquisition of Natural Kind and Artifact Terms,’ in Marras, A. & Demopoulos, W. eds., Language Learnability and Concept Acquisition (Norwood, NJ: Ablex 1986).Google Scholar
Koslowski, B. & Bruner, J.. ‘Learning to Use a Lever,’ Child Development 43 (1972), 79–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leslie, A. ‘Some Implications of Pretense for Children's Theories of Mind,’ in Astington, J.W. Harris, P.L. & Olson, D.R. eds., Developing Theories of Mind (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press 1988).Google Scholar
Leslie, A.M. ‘Pretense and Representation in Infancy: The Origins of “Theory of Mind,“' Psychological Review 94 (1987) 412-26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, G. Philosophy and the Young Child (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1980).Google Scholar
McCloskey, M. ‘Intuitive Physics,’ Scientific American 24 (1983) 122-30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCune-Nicolich, L. ‘Toward Symbolic Functioning: Structure of Early Use of Pretend Games and Potential Parallels with Language,’ Child Development 52 (1981) 785-97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeill, D. & McNeill, N.. ‘What Does a Child Mean When He Says “No“?,’ in Zale, E.M. ed., Language and Language Behavior (New York: Appleton Century Crofts 1968).Google Scholar
Meltzoff, A.N. & R. W., Borton. Intermodal Matching by Human Neonates,’ Nature 282 (1979) 403-4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meltzoff, A.N. & Moore, M.K.. Imitation of Facial and Manual Gestures by Human Neonates,’ Science 1978, 75-8.Google Scholar
Millikan, R. Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for Realism (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press 1984).Google Scholar
Olson, D.R. & J. W., Astington. ‘Seeing and Knowing: On the Ascription of Mental States to Young Children,’ Canadian Journal of Psychology 41 (1987) 399–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pea, R.D. ‘The Development of Negation in Early Child Language,’ in Olson, D.R. ed., The Social Foundations of Language and Thought (New York: W.W. Norton 1980) 156-86.Google Scholar
Perner, J. ‘Developing Semantics for Theories of Mind: From Propositional Attitudes to Mental Representations,’ in Astington, J.W. Harris, P.L. & Olson, D.R. eds., Developing Theories of Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1988).Google Scholar
Perner, J. Leekam, S. & Wimmer, H.. ‘Three-Year-Olds’ Difficulty Understanding False Belief: Cognitive Limitation, Lack of Knowledge or Pragmatic Misunderstanding,’ British Journal of Developmental Psychology 5 (1987) 125-37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J. The Child's Conception of the World (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1929).Google Scholar
Piaget, J. The Origins of Intelligence in Children (New York: Basic Books 1952).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J. The Child's Construction of Reality (New York: Basic Books 1954).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piaget, J. Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1962).Google Scholar
Piaget, J. The Moral Judgment of the Child (New York: New York Free Press 1965).Google Scholar
Pylyshyn, Z. Computation and Cognition (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press 1984).Google Scholar
Shatz, M. Wellman, H.M. & Silber, S.. ‘The Acquisition of Mental Verbs: A Systematic Investigation of the First Reference to Mental State,’ Cognition 14 (1983) 301-21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stem, D. The First Relationship: Infant and Mother (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1977).Google Scholar
Stich, S. From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science: The Case Against Belief (Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/M.I.T. Press 1983).Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. ‘Communication and Cooperation in Early Infancy: A Description of Primary Intersubjectivity,’ in Bullowa, M. ed., Before Speech (New York: Cambridge University Press 1979).Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. & Hubley, P.. ‘Secondary lntersubjectivity; in Lock, A. ed., Action, Gesture and Symbol: The Emergence of Language (New York: Academic Press 1978).Google Scholar
Uzgiris, I. & Hunt, J.M.V.. Assessment in Infancy: Ordinal Scales of Psychological Development (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press 1975).Google Scholar
Wellman, H. Cross, D. & Bartsch, K.. Infant Search and Object Permanence: A Meta-Analysis of the A not B Error Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, No. 214 51, 3 (1987).Google ScholarPubMed
Wellman, H. & Gelman, S.. ‘Children's Understanding of the Non-Obvious,’ in Robert, Sternberg ed., Theories of intelligence (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Wellman, H.M. ‘The Child's Theory of Mind: The Development of Conceptions of Cognition,’ in Yussen, S.R. ed., The Growth of Reflection in Children (San Diego: Academic Press 1985) 169–205.Google Scholar
Wellman, H.M. ‘First Steps in the Child's Theorizing About the Mind,’ in Astington, J.W. Harris, P.L. & Olson, D.R. eds., Developing Theories of Mind (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press 1988).Google Scholar
Wellman, H.M. & Estes, E.. ‘Early Understanding of Mental Entities: A Reexamination of Childhood Realism,’ Child Development 57 (1986) 910-23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkes, K. Physicalism (New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1978).Google Scholar
Wimmer, H. Hogrefe, G. & Perner, J.. ‘Children's Understanding of Informational Access as a Source of Knowledge,’ Child Development 59 (1988) 386-96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimmer, H. Hogrefe, J. & Sodian, B.. ‘A Second Stage in the Child's Conception of Mental Life: Understanding Informational Access as a Source of Knowledge,’ in Astington, J. Harris, P. & Olson, D. Developing Theories of Mind (New York: Cambridge University Press 1988).Google Scholar
Wimmer, H. & Perner, J.. ‘Beliefs About Beliefs: Representation and Constraining Function of Wrong Beliefs in Young Children's Understanding of Deception,’ Cognition 13 (1983) 103-28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winner, E. Invented Worlds (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1982).Google Scholar