Words, Thoughts, and TheoriesWords, Thoughts, and Theories articulates and defends the "theory theory" of cognitive and semantic development, the idea that infants and young children, like scientists, learn about the world by forming and revising theories - a view of the origins of knowledge and meaning that has broad implications for cognitive science. Gopnik and Meltzoff interweave philosophical arguments and empirical data from their own and other's research. Both the philosophy and the psychology, the arguments and the data, address the same fundamental epistemological question: how do we come to understand the world around us? The authors show that children just beginning to talk are engaged in profound restructurings of several domains of knowledge. These restructurings are similar to theory changes in science, and they influence children's early semantic development, since children's cognitive concerns shape and motivate their use of very early words. In addition, children pay attention to the language they hear around them, and this too reshapes their cognition and causes them to reorganize their theories. |
Contents
A Road Map | 7 |
Science as Horticulture | 20 |
Structural Features of Theories | 34 |
Theories Modules and Empirical Generalizations | 49 |
Interactions among Theories Modules and Empirical Generalizations | 63 |
Evidence for the Theory Theory | 73 |
The Paradox of Invisible Objects | 86 |
The EighteenMonthOlds Theory | 101 |
The EighteenMonthOlds Theory | 145 |
Want | 159 |
The EighteenMonthOlds Theory | 176 |
Language and Thought | 189 |
Crosslinguistic Studies | 204 |
The Darwinian Conclusion | 211 |
Notes | 225 |
251 | |
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18 months 9-month-olds A-not-B error abilities abstract adult theory argue behavior child cognitive development cognitive science complex conceptual change conceptual structures connectionist constraints correlated counterevidence cross-sectional studies developmental developmental psychology disappearances distinctive domains earlier empirical encode evidence example experience experimenter explanation fact folk physics gone Gopnik & Meltzoff imitation inferences innate input interaction invisible displacements involve knowledge language learning linguistic means-ends modularity modules Moreover movements object appearances object kinds object permanence occluder ontological ontological commitments particular patterns phenomenology philosophical philosophy of science Piaget predictions problem processes properties psychological Putnam framework relations representations and rules scientific scientists seems semantic development similar simply social Socrates solve sort spatial specific Spelke Star Trek studies suggest syntactic tasks theoretical theory change theory formation theory of mind theory of object theory theory tions trajectory types typically understanding of object visual visual perception Wellman young infants