Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0009
H. Wellman
Across the world and across history, adults have developed widely divergent beliefs about people and their minds and actions, capacities and limits. Yet, these spring from, and depart from, early childhood theories, which are remarkably similar worldwide. This chapter considers what some of these divergent beliefs about people are like and how they arise from earlier understandings. How? Universal processes and beginnings allow and propel the development of vastly different belief systems, and theory of mind plays a particularly powerful role in these processes and outcomes. Human children worldwide share a framework theory of mind even when adults’ conceptions of people are less similar worldwide than children’s. Cultures have centuries in which to develop unique understandings of persons, selves, and societies. At the same time, all of them are grounded in the same initial framework of young children.
{"title":"Possible Worlds, Possible Minds","authors":"H. Wellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"Across the world and across history, adults have developed widely divergent beliefs about people and their minds and actions, capacities and limits. Yet, these spring from, and depart from, early childhood theories, which are remarkably similar worldwide. This chapter considers what some of these divergent beliefs about people are like and how they arise from earlier understandings. How? Universal processes and beginnings allow and propel the development of vastly different belief systems, and theory of mind plays a particularly powerful role in these processes and outcomes. Human children worldwide share a framework theory of mind even when adults’ conceptions of people are less similar worldwide than children’s. Cultures have centuries in which to develop unique understandings of persons, selves, and societies. At the same time, all of them are grounded in the same initial framework of young children.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127173064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0002
H. Wellman
This chapter discusses mind reading and theory of mind in adults, preparatory to looking at children in many further chapters. It starts by looking at adult gossip. Gossip appeals to people because it gives them a massive arena for learning about the inner workings of far more people than they could ever know individually. Through gossip, one learns about people’s intentions, quirks, likes, beliefs, deeds, and misdeeds. Then the chapter outlines in more detail just what theory of mind is, its components, and its structures. It is an everyday (not a scientific) theory used to understand ourselves and others; ordinary and commonsensical, it is also called commonsense psychology. Despite all its usefulness, people’s theories of mind can fail them. An everyday example is people’s sense of if and when someone is lying. Despite years of being concerned about lying, most adults’ theories about lying are wrong.
{"title":"Mind Reading, Gossip, and Liars","authors":"H. Wellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses mind reading and theory of mind in adults, preparatory to looking at children in many further chapters. It starts by looking at adult gossip. Gossip appeals to people because it gives them a massive arena for learning about the inner workings of far more people than they could ever know individually. Through gossip, one learns about people’s intentions, quirks, likes, beliefs, deeds, and misdeeds. Then the chapter outlines in more detail just what theory of mind is, its components, and its structures. It is an everyday (not a scientific) theory used to understand ourselves and others; ordinary and commonsensical, it is also called commonsense psychology. Despite all its usefulness, people’s theories of mind can fail them. An everyday example is people’s sense of if and when someone is lying. Despite years of being concerned about lying, most adults’ theories about lying are wrong.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126731898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/11970.001.0001
Henry M. Wellman
This chapter examines how children’s theory of mind springs from their social brains. Neuroscience shows that adults have a theory-of-mind neural network. Children’s developing theory of mind uses some of the same neural regions that are used by adults. But, it also shows considerable neural change over time. Theory of mind is a deeply developmental achievement, driven by experience and learning. Because the brain is plastic, that experience and learning also shape the structure and functioning of the brain. We experience and learn new things, and the brain changes in response. Indeed, theory-of-mind understandings and theory-of-mind brain activations change throughout childhood, together, step by step. There is no simple brain-tells-all story. Mind reading is learned; the social brain is a product of learning as well.
{"title":"The Social Brain","authors":"Henry M. Wellman","doi":"10.7551/mitpress/11970.001.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11970.001.0001","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines how children’s theory of mind springs from their social brains. Neuroscience shows that adults have a theory-of-mind neural network. Children’s developing theory of mind uses some of the same neural regions that are used by adults. But, it also shows considerable neural change over time. Theory of mind is a deeply developmental achievement, driven by experience and learning. Because the brain is plastic, that experience and learning also shape the structure and functioning of the brain. We experience and learn new things, and the brain changes in response. Indeed, theory-of-mind understandings and theory-of-mind brain activations change throughout childhood, together, step by step. There is no simple brain-tells-all story. Mind reading is learned; the social brain is a product of learning as well.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114860245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0004
H. Wellman
This chapter focuses on children’s ability to separate the imagined from the real and does so through a focus on imaginary companions. Imaginary companions appear in many forms; they can have physical forms (a puppet friend), or they can be purely mental creations. Typically, imaginary companions have ideas, emotions, and desires separate from the child’s, and thus they are saturated in theory-of-mind understandings. Although some authorities and many parents worry that imaginary companions are a particularly good example of children’s inability to separate the imagined from the real, research shows that young children easily distinguish between fantasy and fact, between the mental and the real, between imagined entities and real physical ones. Moreover, children who have imaginary companions not only distinguish between mind and reality, but also show numerous theory-of-mind strengths.
{"title":"Imagination and Reality","authors":"H. Wellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on children’s ability to separate the imagined from the real and does so through a focus on imaginary companions. Imaginary companions appear in many forms; they can have physical forms (a puppet friend), or they can be purely mental creations. Typically, imaginary companions have ideas, emotions, and desires separate from the child’s, and thus they are saturated in theory-of-mind understandings. Although some authorities and many parents worry that imaginary companions are a particularly good example of children’s inability to separate the imagined from the real, research shows that young children easily distinguish between fantasy and fact, between the mental and the real, between imagined entities and real physical ones. Moreover, children who have imaginary companions not only distinguish between mind and reality, but also show numerous theory-of-mind strengths.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130209298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190878672.003.0008
H. Wellman
Theory of mind not only begins and develops robustly in early childhood, but also continues beyond that into older childhood and adulthood. A good window on these later developments is children’s emerging understandings of possible extraordinary mental abilities: children’s understanding of, and wrestling with, concepts like God, superheroes, Hell, and omniscience. Superheroes provide a next step beyond preschool as children’s theory of mind moves beyond thinking about the ordinary to wrestle with the extraordinary. Interest in God often begins with partial understanding and also first springs from children’s interest in strength and power. From these beginnings, children reach for the concepts of God, omniscience, the afterlife, and the soul. This journey tells an anthropomorphism story: Children begin by understanding the limited and fallible minds of ordinary people. From this base they move toward an ever-expanding grasp of extraordinary minds.
{"title":"Superpowers, God, Omniscience, and Afterlife","authors":"H. Wellman","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190878672.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190878672.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Theory of mind not only begins and develops robustly in early childhood, but also continues beyond that into older childhood and adulthood. A good window on these later developments is children’s emerging understandings of possible extraordinary mental abilities: children’s understanding of, and wrestling with, concepts like God, superheroes, Hell, and omniscience. Superheroes provide a next step beyond preschool as children’s theory of mind moves beyond thinking about the ordinary to wrestle with the extraordinary. Interest in God often begins with partial understanding and also first springs from children’s interest in strength and power. From these beginnings, children reach for the concepts of God, omniscience, the afterlife, and the soul. This journey tells an anthropomorphism story: Children begin by understanding the limited and fallible minds of ordinary people. From this base they move toward an ever-expanding grasp of extraordinary minds.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116737545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190878672.003.0007
H. Wellman
When and how do theory-of-mind understandings begin? This chapter assesses infants’ social understanding. Babies are not the mindless beings scientists and philosophers once thought them. Even in the first year of infancy, they have remarkable knowledge about their social worlds. This is not something babies gain innately. Instead, among their innate abilities is an extraordinary predisposition to learn, especially about their social worlds. Before age two, the end of infancy, children have a foundation for all the social development that is to come, setting the stage for the massive growth in social understanding seen in preschoolers. Like their preschool siblings, infants learn by careful observation and by putting pieces together.
{"title":"The Baby Boom","authors":"H. Wellman","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190878672.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190878672.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"When and how do theory-of-mind understandings begin? This chapter assesses infants’ social understanding. Babies are not the mindless beings scientists and philosophers once thought them. Even in the first year of infancy, they have remarkable knowledge about their social worlds. This is not something babies gain innately. Instead, among their innate abilities is an extraordinary predisposition to learn, especially about their social worlds. Before age two, the end of infancy, children have a foundation for all the social development that is to come, setting the stage for the massive growth in social understanding seen in preschoolers. Like their preschool siblings, infants learn by careful observation and by putting pieces together.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121118072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0012
H. Wellman
This chapter focuses on children’s perception of and interaction with robots. In this way, it follows from Chapter 8 and its focus on understanding of extraordinary minds. Every year, robots become a larger part of adults’ and children’s lives. They are designed to play games, answer questions, read stories, and even watch children unsupervised. Current research suggests that robots might be effective in these roles for young children but less so with older ones. Because robots play an expanding role in children’s lives, we need an expanding research program to understand child–robot interactions for children in a wide range of ages. The chapter overviews emerging research beginning to study this. It also outlines future studies needed to examine children’s learning from robots, along with the complex relationship between children’s perceptions of robots, experiences with robots, how they treat them, and how those interactions impact children’s social development and their interactions with others.
{"title":"Hi, Robot","authors":"H. Wellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on children’s perception of and interaction with robots. In this way, it follows from Chapter 8 and its focus on understanding of extraordinary minds. Every year, robots become a larger part of adults’ and children’s lives. They are designed to play games, answer questions, read stories, and even watch children unsupervised. Current research suggests that robots might be effective in these roles for young children but less so with older ones. Because robots play an expanding role in children’s lives, we need an expanding research program to understand child–robot interactions for children in a wide range of ages. The chapter overviews emerging research beginning to study this. It also outlines future studies needed to examine children’s learning from robots, along with the complex relationship between children’s perceptions of robots, experiences with robots, how they treat them, and how those interactions impact children’s social development and their interactions with others.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134283779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-02-03DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0013
H. Wellman
This chapter looks at theory of mind at work. Theory of mind is at work in ways big and small, in ways hidden and obvious. It is a foundation for people’s human way of looking at the world, so whether false or true, whether directed at themselves or at others, it colors their thinking, their institutions, and their basic beliefs. Societally, it shapes legal and moral codes, written and pictorial conventions, and screen media. Individually, it shapes people’s feelings, their gift giving, their teaching and learning, or their failures to learn. It is at work in adults and in children and in the way people can bring together their adult and childhood selves. Ultimately, it is a foundational piece of who we were, who we are, who we will become, and how those knit together.
{"title":"Theory of Mind at Work","authors":"H. Wellman","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190878672.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks at theory of mind at work. Theory of mind is at work in ways big and small, in ways hidden and obvious. It is a foundation for people’s human way of looking at the world, so whether false or true, whether directed at themselves or at others, it colors their thinking, their institutions, and their basic beliefs. Societally, it shapes legal and moral codes, written and pictorial conventions, and screen media. Individually, it shapes people’s feelings, their gift giving, their teaching and learning, or their failures to learn. It is at work in adults and in children and in the way people can bring together their adult and childhood selves. Ultimately, it is a foundational piece of who we were, who we are, who we will become, and how those knit together.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"237 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122110891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-07-04DOI: 10.1002/9780470758427.ch5
Daniel R. Altschuler, Fernando J. Ballesteros
The Moon is no longer the “in” thing. We see it as often as the Sun and give it little thought—we’ve become indifferent. However, the Moon does reflect more than just sunlight. The nomenclature of lunar craters holds up a mirror to an important aspect of human history. Of the 1586 lunar craters that have been named honoring philosophers and scientists, only 28 honor a woman. These 28 women of the Moon present us with an opportunity to meditate about this gap, but perhaps more significantly, they offer us an opportunity to talk about their lives, mostly unknown today. The women of the moon tell us stories of love, sorrow, and courage, of remarkable scientific achievements realized through perseverance, and of tragedies triggered by circumstances.
{"title":"Pretext:","authors":"Daniel R. Altschuler, Fernando J. Ballesteros","doi":"10.1002/9780470758427.ch5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470758427.ch5","url":null,"abstract":"The Moon is no longer the “in” thing. We see it as often as the Sun and give it little thought—we’ve become indifferent. However, the Moon does reflect more than just sunlight. The nomenclature of lunar craters holds up a mirror to an important aspect of human history. Of the 1586 lunar craters that have been named honoring philosophers and scientists, only 28 honor a woman. These 28 women of the Moon present us with an opportunity to meditate about this gap, but perhaps more significantly, they offer us an opportunity to talk about their lives, mostly unknown today. The women of the moon tell us stories of love, sorrow, and courage, of remarkable scientific achievements realized through perseverance, and of tragedies triggered by circumstances.","PeriodicalId":159853,"journal":{"name":"Reading Minds","volume":"31 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115029215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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