About the Book
"Words, 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 theory theory has led to much research. However, this book looks at the theory in detail and to systematically contrast it with other theories. It also applies the theory to infancy and early childhood, to use the theory to provide a framework for understanding semantic development, and to demonstrate that language acquisition influences theory change in children. The authors show that children just beginning to talk are engaged in 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. But, 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.
Table of Contents:
The other Socratic method: Socrates's problem; Augustine's problem; a road map. Part 1 The theory theory: the scientist as child - but surely it can't really be a theory? a cognitive view of science, naturalistic epistemology and development - an evolutionary speculation, science as horticulture, objections - sociology, objections - timing and convergence, objections - magic, empirical advances, what is theory? structural features of theories, functional features of theories, dynamic features of theories, theories in childhood, theories as representations; theories, modules, and empirical generalizations - modules, theories and development, modules and development, modularity in peripheral and central processing, empirical generalization - scripts, narratives, and nets, interactions among theories, modules, and empirical generalizations, nonconceptual development - information processing and social construction. Part 2 Evidence for the theory theory: the child's theory of appearances - the adult theory, the initial theory, the paradox of invisible objects, an alternative - a theory-change account, the nine-month-old's theory, the A-not-B error as an auxiliary hypothesis, the eighteen-month-old's theory, other evidence for the theory theory, semantic developments - from objects permanence to perspective taking, later semantic developments - 'gone' and 'see', conclusion; the child's theory of action - the adult theory, the initial theory, the nine-month-old's theory, the eighteen-month-old's theory, other evidence for the theory theory, semantic development - 'no', 'uh-oh' and 'there', later developments - from actions to desires, later semantic developments - 'want', conclusion; the child's theory of kinds - the adult theory, categories and kinds, the initial theory, the nine-month-old's theory, the eighteen-month-old's theory;, other evidence for the theory theory, semantic development - the naming Spurt, later developments, conclusion. Part 3 Theories and language: language and thought - prerequisites, interactions, a theory-theory view, methodological issues - specificity and correlation, developmental relations between language and cognition, theories and constraints, crosslinguistic studies, individual-difference studies, conclusion; the Darwinian conclusion - who's afraid of semantic holism? a developmental cognitive science, computational and neurological mechanisms, after Piaget, sailing in Neurath's boat.
Review :
"The book is astonishing in its scope and clarity. It successfully integrates philosophy, cognitive development, and cognitive science in a way that has rarely if ever been done. The idea that children develop theories which evolve and reorganize into newer and more powerful theories, like mini-scientists, is of course not new; but in Gopnik and Meltzoff's hands it received a thorough treatment, across such a wide range of domains."--Simon Baron-Cohen, Lecturer in Psychopathology, Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
& quot; The book is astonishing in its scope and clarity. It successfully integrates philosophy, cognitive development, and cognitive science in a way that has rarely if ever been done. The idea that children develop theories which evolve and reorganize into newer and more powerful theories, like mini-scientists, is of course not new; but in Gopnik and Meltzoff's hands it received a thorough treatment, across such a wide range of domains.& quot; -- Simon Baron-Cohen, Lecturer in Psychopathology, Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
" The book is astonishing in its scope and clarity. It successfully integrates philosophy, cognitive development, and cognitive science in a way that has rarely if ever been done. The idea that children develop theories which evolve and reorganize into newer and more powerful theories, like mini-scientists, is of course not new; but in Gopnik and Meltzoff's hands it received a thorough treatment, across such a wide range of domains." -- Simon Baron-Cohen, Lecturer in Psychopathology, Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
-- Simon Baron-Cohen, Lecturer in Psychopathology, Departments of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
