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Words, Thoughts, and Theories
Abstract
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? Recently, the theory theory has led to much interesting research. However, this is the first book to look at the theory in extensive detail and to systematically contrast it with other theories. It is also the first to apply 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 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. 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. Bradford Books imprint
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“The clearest of these is the tendency to assume that mental states are direct representations of psychical reality, normal in a 20-month-old child (Gopnik & Meltzoff, 1997).”
From A developmental, mentalization-based approach to the understanding and treatment of borderline personality disorder (2009) · cites this paper as Gopnik & Meltzoff, 1997
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“On the other side of the debate is 'theory theory', or the idea that we use a common sense psychological theory, or folk psychology, to understand other minds, rather than internally simulating them (e.g.Gopnik and Meltzoff, 1997).”
From Social cognitive development during adolescence (2006) · cites this paper as Gopnik and Meltzoff, 1997
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Metadata
- Authors
- Gopnik, A., & Meltzoff, A. N.
- ORCID
- Meltzoff, Andrew N.
- Venue
- The MIT Press eBooks
- Publisher
- The MIT Press
- Published
- 1997-01-07
- OpenAlex
- W4302454383
- Cited by
- 1,479
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 55 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 76 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 109 · 2018: 50 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 49 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 55
- FWCI
- 38.50
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The MIT Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Categorization, perception, and language
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- theory theory, cognitive development, semantic development, language acquisition, theory change, infant cognition, early childhood, epistemology, origin of knowledge, language and cognition
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