Development of folk knowledge 2:19:19 PDF

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folk psychology, folk biology, folk physics, tool use, animate/inanimate distinction...

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Folk Knowledge  Children very easily acquire intuitive (naïve) notions about how the world works  Folk knowledge: how people naturally come to understand aspects of their world o Different from scientific knowledge  Non-except  A coherent form of reasoning about a particular set of phenomena  3 domains o Folk psychology: intuitive (naïve) theories about mental state o Folk biology: intuitive (naïve) theories about the natural world o Folk physics: intuitive (naïve) theories about objects and space Theory Theories of Cognitive Development  Cognitive development progresses through a process of: o Theory generation o Theory testing o Theory change (conceptual change)  Overlap with core knowledge o Children possess rudimentary knowledge about how the world works o But less focused on “innate” aspects  Assumes folk theories are modified by experience Folk Physics  Numbers & quantities: numerosity o Ability to determine quickly number of items without counting o 5 month-olds look longer  Not because they know numbers but because they expect more in general  Numbers & quantities: ordinality o Basic understanding of more than or less than o 6 month-olds can differentiate 2x amount  Spatial cognition o Spatial orientation: understanding of object in space (self as reference)  Develops 3-7 years o Spatial visualization: visual operations (mentally rotating objects)  Able by 4, but still hard for adults o Object location & memory: remembering object location  Around age 5  Tool use o By 3 or 4, they use many cultural tools  They are able to figure out how to retrieve items o By 2.5, they can use tools if urged to do so  What is related to children’s tool use? o Manipulation of physical world & object-oriented play (tend to be more common/encouraged in boys) o Design stance & functional fixedness  D: once seeing a tool used, they assume it was designed for that purpose  F: don’t identify alternative uses for familiar tools  Become more flexible around 4

Folk Biology  Animate-inanimate distinction o Newborns look longer at lights that move like a person moves rather than randomly  Anthropomorphism: attribute human-like properties (hopes, feelings, thoughts) to inanimate things o Common in a range of settings through early childhood o But most adults still do at times  What’s alive? o 3-7 years  People; yes  Dog; yes  Tree; no  Cloud; yes o 7-10 years  People; yes  Dog; yes  Tree; yes  Cloud; no o Shows that from 3-7 years have an assumption that things that seem to be moving are alive while something that does not, are not alive  What is death? o By 4/5:  Children understand dead animals do not have living function  Are able to distinguish between sleeping from death  Influence of context o Menominee Native American tribe  Origin story in which humans evolved from bears  Children see bears as more human like than other animals o American 3-5 year olds  If they have pets  More likely to attribute biological properties to animals  Biological inheritance o Tend to believe biological traits are results of environment (rather than parents) until age 7 Folk Psychology  Causal-explanatory framework to account for people’s actions o Perception; lead to beliefs  See, hear, smell  Touch, feel o Emotional/physiology; lead to desire  Love, hate, fear  Hunger, thirst  Pain, arousal o Desire; leads to action  Want, desire

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 Wish, hope  Ought, should o Belief; leads to action  Believe, suppose  Know, expert  Doubt, suspect o Action; lead to reaction  Hit, grab  Move  Search  Attend to o Reaction  Happy, sad  Angry  Surprise  Guilt, dismay Understand others as intentional agents o People do things on purpose and cause things to happen Ability to take perspective of another o Understand others’ intentions Intention; 6-9 months -> accidental actions; 14 months -> desires; 18 months Development: o Diverse beliefs & desires  People can know and feel things you also don’t know and feel  Around 3.5-4 years’ old o Knowledge access  When you know something, someone else might not  Around 4-4.5 years’ old o False belief  What we think we know about reality can be wrong  Around 4.5-5 years’ old o Belief emotion  How a person will feel if they are wrong about reality  Around 4.5-5 years’ old o Real-apparent emotion  A person can feel one emotion but demonstrate another  Around 5-5.5 years’ old Understanding others requires coordinating cognitions o Remember both your beliefs/feelings and someone else’s (working memory) o Hold both sets of beliefs/feelings in mind at the same time (dual representation/dual encoding) o Inhibit what you would do to think about what someone else would do or feel (executive functioning) Understanding others is related to practice o Ex. pretense and imaginary friends

o Ex. talking about feelings with parents o Ex. having older siblings Gender Differences: Folk Physics & Folk Psychology  Boys tend to develop fold physics earlier  Girls tend to develop folk psychology earlier Religious Thinking: Folk Physics & Folk Psychology  Finalism: interpret natural phenomena as being caused by o created for a purpose  Teleology: reason about events & objects in terms of purpose  Artificialism: belief all things created by people or God for a purpose  Intuitive theism: attributing mental states and desires to inanimate objects and unseen entities...