Core Knowledge Theory

Question 1

Core Knowledge theory

Answer 1

• existence of core concepts
• built-in or innate (not blank slate)

Question 2

concepts

Answer 2

• essential things we know about [blank]
• used to group together objects (or events, qualities, or abstractions) that are similar in some way

Question 3

why do we need concepts/categories?

Answer 3

• simplify world
• reasoning and inference

Question 4

Nativism

Answer 4

• there are innate concepts
• core domains = simple, starter (innate) concepts

Question 5

empiricims

Answer 5

• there are not innate concepts
• concepts are learned with general learning mechanisms

Question 6

core knowledge theory

Answer 6

• core concepts are built-in or innate
• nativism (ignore book’s term constructivism in this section)
• core domains/selected over evolution just like physical structures:
• physical objects (inanimates)
• number
• space
• living things (animates)
• language

Question 7

theory-theory (wellman & gelman)

Answer 7

children have intuitive theories, each has an innate basis

Question 8

Baillargeon’s landmark study

Answer 8

• violation of expectation/”looking time”
• perfected piaget’s idea of lack of mental representations
• object permanence with 4 month olds

Question 9

inanimates: physical objects/ niave theory of physics

Answer 9

• spelke and colleagues: physical objects:
• move in continuous path (4 months)
• take up space/can’t pass through other objects (4 months)
• cannot move on their own (but animates can) (7 months)
• nativists argue yes beacuse reaching/grapsing experience is minimal and visual acuity low before this point

Question 10

all innate?

Answer 10

• some time or experience required for full knowledge of gravity and support
• violation detected at 6.5 months
• before that age, the violation is not detected

Question 11

Number

Answer 11

• infants (and some other primates) discriminate objects and events by small numerosity
• habituate to different arrangments of same number
• 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, but not 4-5 etc.
• “subitization”
• innate constraint

Question 12

addition

Answer 12

• 5 months olds
• only up to 3+1 -> same innate constraint

Question 13

post-infancy

Answer 13

• once again, these are “starter” concepts
• how do we get past this limit?
• and why don’t non-human animals?
• language: each numerosity has a name
• Piraha tribe of brazil: no number names and no counting or numerical reasoning beyond 3

Question 14

What is a (fully developed) theory of mind

Answer 14

• knowing that others have intential actions
• emotions desires
• perceptions
• beliefs
• especially difficult when they are different from one’s own

Question 15

Where does TOM begin?

Answer 15

• innate knowledge of human face
• newborns prefer faces to other complex stimuli
• preference for general facial configuration? “top” heavy”
• biological motion preferred over non-biological motion
• newborns imitate facial expressions

Question 16

newborn imitation

Answer 16

from 2 days

Question 17

intentions/goals

Answer 17

• reaching experiment (6 months) (woodward)
• vilation of expectation
• focusing on the intention of the hand
• if you reach for object that they want or expected the human hand to reach for

Question 18

emotional understanding

Answer 18

• emotion contagion in newborns
• 3-4 months: discrimination of emotions
• 7 months: ERP evidence of discrimination of basic emotions
• understanding emotions when they differ from one’s own: social referencing (~10 months)

Question 19

social referencing

Answer 19

use somebody eles’s reaction to gauge a socail situation

Question 20

emotional contagion

Answer 20

automatic immitation of someone eles’s emotions (0-3 months olds)

Question 21

Desires: how early, if different?

Answer 21

• bowl of goldfish crackers, bowl of raw broccoli
• babies/toddlers like goldfish, hate broccoli
• experimenter demonstrates her own likes (desires) and dislikes
• experimenter asks child to give her one
• two conditions: same desire (easy) vs. different desire (hard)
• results in “different desire” condition: 18 mo old gives broccoli and 14 mo give goldfish anyway

Question 22

Perceptions

Answer 22

joint attention/gaze following (9-10 months)

Question 23

Apple hiding experiment

Answer 23

• the child will always respond by hiding the apple behind their back or by hiding it on the side the experimentor hid from child
• adult response by hiding in it on their side of screen

Question 25

Perceptions

Answer 25

• apple behind screen:
• fail at 2.5
• pass by 3

Question 26

Beliefs: False belief Task

Answer 26

• false belief = different belief
• “Sally-Ann task”
• 3 yr olds = answer look in box
• 4 yr olds = answering correctly -> look in basket because that was the last place sally saw it

Question 27

3 yr olds pass Sally-Ann Task if

Answer 27

1. sally is in view the whole time, and
2. they are prompted to put sally where she wants to go rather than ask where she would go (Rubio.-Fernandez Geurts)

Question 28

Looking time studies: onishi & baillargeon

Answer 28

• 15 mo olds look longer when reach is inconsistent with person’s (false) belief