Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T23:15:31.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Beliefs for human-unique social learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 November 2021

Hilary Richardson*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, EdinburghEH8 9JZ, UK. hilary.richardson@ed.ac.ukhttps://hilaryrichardson.github.io/

Abstract

Phillips et al. argue that understanding what others know is central to social cognition across species and that this understanding underlies human-unique accumulation and transmission of cultural knowledge. Knowledge representations can't be both what we have in common with our evolutionary ancestors and what sets us apart from them. Belief representations are necessary for human-unique social learning.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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

Astington, J. W., & Jenkins, J. M. (1995). Theory of mind development and social understanding. Cognition & Emotion, 9(2–3), 151165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Astington, J. W., & Pelletier, J. (2005). Theory of mind, language, and learning in the early years: Developmental origins of school readiness. In Homer, B. D. & Tamis-Lemonda, C. (Eds.), The development of social cognition and communication (pp. 205230). Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bartsch, K., London, K., & Campbell, M. D. (2007). Children's attention to beliefs in interactive persuasion tasks. Developmental Psychology, 43(1), 111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bass, I., Gopnik, A., Hanson, M., Ramarajan, D., Shafto, P., Wellman, H., & Bonawitz, E. (2019). Children's developing theory of mind and pedagogical evidence selection. Developmental Psychology, 55(2), 286.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blair, C., & Razza, R. P. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Development, 78(2), 647663.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brosseau-Liard, P., Penney, D., & Poulin-Dubois, D. (2015). Theory of mind selectively predicts preschoolers’ knowledge-based selective word learning. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 33(4), 464475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grueneisen, S., Wyman, E., & Tomasello, M. (2015). “I know you don't know I know…” Children use second-order false-belief reasoning for peer coordination. Child Development, 86(1), 287293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, P. L., & Corriveau, K. H. (2011). Young children's selective trust in informants. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1567), 11791187.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, P. L., Corriveau, K. H., Pasquini, E. S., Koenig, M., Fusaro, M., & Clément, F. (2012). Credulity and the development of selective trust in early childhood. In Beran, M., Brandl, J. L., Perner, J., & Proust, J. (Eds.), Foundations of metacognition (pp. 193210). Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyes, C. (2018). Cognitive gadgets: The cultural evolution of thinking. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, C. C., Slaughter, V., & Wellman, H. M. (2018). Nimble negotiators: How theory of mind (ToM) interconnects with persuasion skills in children with and without ToM delay. Developmental Psychology, 54(3), 494.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peterson, C. C., & Wellman, H. M. (2019). Longitudinal theory of mind (ToM) development from preschool to adolescence with and without ToM delay. Child Development, 90(6), 19171934.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Poulin-Dubois, D., Rakoczy, H., Burnside, K., Crivello, C., Dörrenberg, S., Edwards, K., … Low, J. (2018). Do infants understand false beliefs? We don't know yet – A commentary on Baillargeon, Buttelmann and Southgate's commentary. Cognitive Development, 48, 302315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, H., Koster-Hale, J., Caselli, N., Magid, R., Benedict, R., Olson, H., … Saxe, R. (2020). Reduced neural selectivity for mental states in deaf children with delayed exposure to sign language. Nature Communications, 11(1), 113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, H., Lisandrelli, G., Riobueno-Naylor, A., & Saxe, R. (2018). Development of the social brain from age three to twelve years. Nature Communications, 9(1), 1027.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slaughter, V., Peterson, C. C., & Moore, C. (2013). I can talk you into it: Theory of mind and persuasion behavior in young children. Developmental Psychology, 49(2), 227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstein, E. A. (1969). The development of interpersonal competence. In Goslin, D. A. (Ed.), Handbook of socialization theory and research (pp. 753775). Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Wellman, H. M., Fang, F., & Peterson, C. C. (2011). Sequential progressions in a theory-of-mind scale: Longitudinal perspectives. Child Development, 82(3), 780792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zigler, E., & Trickett, P. K. (1978). IQ, social competence, and evaluation of early childhood intervention programs. American Psychologist, 33(9), 789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziv, M., & Frye, D. (2004). Children's understanding of teaching: The role of knowledge and belief. Cognitive Development, 19(4), 457477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar