Representational preconditions for understanding other minds in the service of human collaboration and social learning

Objectif

The central aim of the proposed research project is to systematically explore the empirical implications of a novel theoretical approach to the early representational preconditions and the functional structure of the mechanisms dedicated for understanding other minds. We aim to explore and shed new theoretical light on the basic cognitive and brain mechanisms of the human social mind. One of these mechanisms that has received much attention by earlier approaches to ‘theory-of-mind’ research concerns the ability to infer and represent the mental states of others. Standard theories and research in the last twenty five years have suggested that representing other’s beliefs is an effortful and late developing capacity (Wellman et al., 2001) whose main function is to explain others’ behavior. Here we advance and propose to explore a new theoretical perspective according to which the mechanisms of mental state monitoring and representation involve primarily automatic and effortless processes grounded in on-line cooperative social interactions. Our approach is part of an on-going paradigm change in the field of theory-of-mind research motivated by the recent evidence showing that infants in their second year understand mental states (Onishi & Baillargeon, 2005). Our own research has gone a significant step further by demonstrating that these mechanisms are present as early as 7 month of age, and by showing that both young infants and adults seem to automatically compute others’ beliefs even in situations where they are not required to do so (Kovács et al., 2010). The present project explores the functional sub-components and triggering conditions of young infants’ powerful belief computation abilities and to chart their developmental unfolding. Furthermore, we shall explore the implications of the new theoretical proposal that this dedicated system presupposes as its proper domain the on-going collaborative and communicative interactions.

Régime de financement

ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Institution d’accueil

KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM

Contribution de l’UE

€ 1 449 835,80

Adresse

NADOR UTCA 9
1051 Budapest
Hongrie

Région

Közép-Magyarország Budapest Budapest

Type d’activité

Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Contact administratif

Vanda Mohacsi (Ms.)

Chercheur principal

Agnes Melinda Kovacs (Dr.)

Liens

Contacter l’organisation Site web

Coût total

Aucune donnée

Bénéficiaires (1)