Mapping the Mind: Domain Specificity in Cognition and Culture

531 Pages·1994·9.85 MB·English

by  Lawrence A. Hirschfeld (editor), Susan A. Gelman (editor)

Mapping the mind
A growing number of researchers now claim that many cognitive abilities are
specialized to handle specific types of information. Psychologists with con-
cerns ranging from animal learning to emergent theories of mind and folk
biology, cognitive scientists exploring problem solving and expertise, anthro-
pologists working with color terms and folk taxonomies, psycholinguists in-
vestigating auditory perception, and philosophers examining reasoning
schemata have concluded - often independently - that humans simply could
not learn what they do in a purely domain-neutral fashion. In this important
volume bringing together different traditions of research, the contributors
examine a number of theoretical questions, including the nature of domain-
guided knowledge transfer, the biological and evolutionary nature of domain-
specific skills, and the implications of a domain-specific perspective for
education.
Mapping the mind
Domain specificity in cognition and culture
Edited by
LAWRENCE A. HIRSCHFELD
University of Michigan
SUSAN A. GELMAN
University of Michigan
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1994
First published 1994
Reprinted 1994
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-52M1966-2 hardback
ISBN 0-521 ^2993-5 paperback
To Adam, Bruno, Stephanie, and Tessa
Contents
List of contributors ix
Preface xi
Part I Overview 1
1 Toward a topography of mind: An introduction to domain
specificity 3
Lawrence A. Hirschfeld and Susan A. Gelman
Part II The origins of domain knowledge: Biology and evolution 37
2 The modularity of thought and the epidemiology of
representations 39
Dan Sperber
3 The organization of lexical knowledge in the brain:
Evidence from category- and modality-specific deficits 68
Alfonso Caramazza, Argye Hillis, Elwyn C. Leek,
and Michele Miozzo
4 Origins of domain specificity: The evolution of functional
organization 85
Leda Cosmides and John Tooby
Part III The origins of domain knowledge: Conceptual approaches 117
5 ToMM, ToBY, and Agency: Core architecture and domain
specificity 19
Alan M. Leslie
6 Moral belief: Form versus content 149
David Premack and Ann James Premack
7 Domain-specific knowledge and conceptual change 169
Susan Carey and Elizabeth Spelke
8 Is the acquisition of social categories based on domain-
specific competence or on knowledge transfer? 201
Lawrence A. Hirschfeld
vii
viii Contents
9 The birth and nurturance of concepts by domains: The
origins of concepts of living things 234
Frank C. Keil
Part IV Are domains theories? 255
10 The theory theory 257
Alison Gopnik and Henry M. Wellman
11 Thinking by children and scientists: False analogies and
neglected similarities 294
Paul L. Harris
12 Core domains versus scientific theories: Evidence from
systematics and Itza-Maya folkbiology 316
Scott Atran
13 Essentialist beliefs in children: The acquisition of concepts
and theories 341
Susan A. Gelman, John D. Coley, and Gail M. Gottfried
Part V Domains across cultures and languages 367
14 First principles can support both universal and culture-
specific learning about number and music 369
Rochel Gelman and Kimberly Brenneman
15 Cognitive constraints on cultural representations: Natural
ontologies and religious ideas 391
Pascal Boyer
16 Universal and culture-specific properties of children's
mental models of the earth 412
Stella Vosniadou
17 Cognitive domains and the structure of the lexicon:
The case of the emotions 431
Anna Wierzbicka
Part VI Implications for education 453
18 Teachers' models of children's minds and learning 455
Sidney Strauss and Tamar Shilony
19 Situated rationalism: Biological and social preparation for
learning 474
Lauren B. Resnick
Author index 495
Subject index 505
Contributors
Scott Atran Leda Cosmides
Centre de recherche en Department of Psychology
epistemologie appliquee University of California, Santa
Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS Barbara
Paris, France Santa Barbara, California
Pascal Boyer Rochel Gelman
Department of Anthropology Department of Psychology
Cambridge University University of California, Los
Cambridge, England Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Kimberly Brenneman
Department of Psychology Susan A. Gelman
University of California Department of Psychology
Los Angeles, California University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Alfonso Caramazza
Department of Psychology Alison Gopnik
Dartmouth College Department of Psychology
Hanover, New Hampshire University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Susan Carey
Department of Brain and Cognitive Gail M. Gottfried
Sciences Department of Psychology
Massachusetts Institute of University of Michigan
Technology Ann Arbor, Michigan
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Paul L. Harris
John D. Coley Department of Experimental
Department of Psychology Psychology
Northwestern University Oxford University
Evanston, Illinois Oxford, England
IX