Research Catalog

Words, thoughts, and theories

Title
  1. Words, thoughts, and theories / Alison Gopnik and Andrew N. Meltzoff.
Published by
  1. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1997.
Author
  1. Gopnik, Alison.

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Details

Additional authors
  1. Meltzoff, Andrew N.
Description
  1. xvi, 268 pages; 24 cm
Summary
  1. 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?
  2. 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.
Series statement
  1. Learning, development, and conceptual change
Uniform title
  1. Learning, development, and conceptual change
Subject
  1. Cognition
  2. Cognition in children
  3. Psycholinguistics
  4. Philosophy and cognitive science
  5. Children
  6. Infants
  7. Philosophy
  8. Cognition
  9. Child
  10. Cognitive Science
  11. Infant
  12. Philosophy
  13. Psycholinguistics
  14. cognition
  15. psycholinguistics
  16. children (people by age group)
  17. infants
  18. philosophy
  19. 77.31 cognition
  20. Infants
  21. Children
  22. Cognition in children
  23. Philosophy and cognitive science
  24. Kind
  25. Kognitive Entwicklung
  26. Cognitieve ontwikkeling
  27. Mentale representatie
  28. Theorieèˆn
  29. Taalpsychologie
  30. Desenvolvimento cognitivo
  31. Desenvolvimento da linguagem (psicologia)
  32. Psicolinguistica
  33. Psicologia cognitiva
  34. Philosophie et neurosciences
  35. Cognition > Chez l'enfant
  36. Psycholinguistique
Contents
  1. 1. The Other Socratic Method -- 2. The Scientist as Child -- 3. Theories, Modules, and Empirical Generalizations -- 4. The Child's Theory of Appearances -- 5. The Child's Theory of Action -- 6. The Child's Theory of Kinds -- 7. Language and Thought -- 8. The Darwinian Conclusion.
Owning institution
  1. Princeton University Library
Note
  1. "A Bradford book."
Bibliography (note)
  1. Includes bibliographical references (p. [229]-249) and index.