Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T12:24:03.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A case of stunted development? Existential reasoning is contingent on a developing theory of mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2006

E. Margaret Evans  and
Henry M. Wellman
E. Margaret Evans*
Affiliation:
Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109-0406http://www.umich.edu/~evansem/http://www.umich.edu/~chgdwww/faculty/wellman.html
Henry M. Wellman*
Affiliation:
Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI48109-0406http://www.umich.edu/~evansem/http://www.umich.edu/~chgdwww/faculty/wellman.html
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Missing from Bering's account of the evolutionary origins of existential reasoning is an explicit developmental framework, one that takes into account community input. If Bering's selectionist explanation was on target then one might predict a unique and relatively robust developmental trajectory, regardless of input. Evidence suggests instead that children's existential reasoning is contingent on their developing theory of mind.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 5 , October 2006 , pp. 471 - 472
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)