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25th Annual Symposium

Invited Symposia

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Theory of Mind

Organizer: ANDREW WHITEN, University of St Andrews

Research on the child's "theory of mind" (ToM) has been one of the fastest growth areas of developmental psychology in the past few years. Although several of the key issues were examined by Piaget several decades ago, contemporary studies tend to trace their roots back to Premack and Woodruff's seminal paper of 1978, "Does the Chimpanzee have a Theory of Mind?". Given these roots, it is perhaps not suprising that the recent work in child psychology has been paralleled by research on primates' understanding of other minds. In this symposium, leading researchers studying both non-human primates and human children assess the currect state of our understanding of ToM from evolutionary and developmental perspectives. Whiten introduces the symposium through an overview of its history and conceptual foundations. The evidence for primate ToM comes from both experiments with laboratory-housed chimpanzees, and from more ethologically based observations of behavior like deception and teaching in the wild. The latter also suggest the functional payoffs which might explain the evolution of ToM. There is some evidence of more advanced ToM abilities in great apes in comparison with mokeys, which may in turn relate to the evolution of pretence and imitation, reflecting underlying cognitive aptterns which developmental psychologists have also examined. Against this background, Gopnik examines the evidence for a "starting state" ToM in human infants, which forms the innate basis for the later more complex ToM which is revised and transformed through experience. Gomez then examines in more detail the joint-attention behaviors which have been hypothesises as important achievements in the next stage of building ToM in infancy. Describing the results of recent experiments with chimpanzees, he assesses the evidence that apes have evolved an understanding of attention which is more complex than that found in monkeys and which recognises attention as a sign of ostension, or communicative intentionality. Finally, Povinelli reports experiments with both chimpanzees and children which aim to assess just what the subjects understand about visual perception. The results suggest that although young chimpanzees are adept at attending to and following the gaze of others, they fail to appreciate its intentional significance, in the way which pre-school children are beginning to do. Taken together, the studies reported in the symposium suggest both the evolutionary foundations on which human ToM is built, and the points at which the ontogeny of human ToM diverges from the common ape foundations.

Piaget and Garcia's Model of Development in Psychogenesis and the History of Science

Organizer: GÉRALD NOELTING, Université Laval

Piaget and Garcia (1983/1989) set forth an innovative model explaining how mechanisms in Psychogenesis and the History of Science converge. Mechanisms involve levels of composition. In a first phase, composition is exogenous and induced within states or figures. Composition is intra-object. In a second phase, transformation between states are mastered. Composition is inter-object. In a final phase, endogenous structures are organized, integrating various transformations applied to external objects. Composition is trans-object.

This model is investigated in a Symposium. On the one hand, validation is made of the model, through experimental investigations in psychogenesis. On the other hand, phases in Piaget's own vast scientific effort are distinguished, the problem of the external representation of cognitive structures is discussed, constructive activity in psychology is compared to the nature of knowledge in philosophy, and a theory of complexity is evolved.

Development, Evolution, and Culture

Organizer: ELLIOT TURIEL, UC Berkeley

The participants in this symposium will address general questions pertaining to culture and development. Two sets of issues are particularly relevant. One is whether or not concepts of change or progress can be applied to the idea of culture. The second is the possibile relationships between individual development and cultural change. Each of the participants has researched individual development (in the cognitive and/or social realms) within the context of cultural analyses. The broader question of changes within individuals, transformations within cultures, and their possible reciprocal influences is a focus of this symposium.

A Comparative Analysis of Object Permanence and Search Behavior

Organizer: FRANCOIS DORÉ, Université Laval

The first comparative studies of object permanence were focused on identifying the ultimate stage that adult animals can reach, as well as on describing the developmental sequence of this sensorimotor acquisition. The emphasis, especially in the case of nonhuman primates, was more on similarities with human infants than on differences. More recent studies have examined interspecific differences and have investigated the cognitive and adaptive processes underlying these differences. The contributions to this symposium are examples of this approach. The results they have obtained and the methods and concepts they have developed are relevant not only to comparative psychology but also to human developmental psychology.

Imitation in Comparative Evolutionary Perspective

Organizer: ANNE RUSSON, Glendon College

Interest has reawakened since the late 1980's in imitative phenomena, and comparative evolutionary perspectives have been major among the approaches taken. This offers a prime opportunity for reconsidering imitation in broad comparative perspective. Our speakers' work on imitation spans a wide range of living species and covers issues ranging from structural organization and mechanisms to develomental and evolutionary change. Our aim is to begin integrating the understanding of imitation gained through this comparative research with that based on work with humans. Action Knowledge, Social Awareness, and Imitation EUGENE ABRAVANEL, George Washington University

Conflict Resolution in Human and Nonhuman Primates

Organizer: FRANS DE WAAL, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center and Emory University

Both human and nonhuman primates are faced with the problem that conflicts of interest are inevitable but that these conflicts tend to damage social relationships. This means that winning a conflict does not necessarily result in a net gain. Settling conflict on a basis other than physical strength, while leaving the social relationship intact, is a common strategy. Studies of nonhuman primates indicate that conflicts can be resolved non- aggressively, and that when aggression does occur, relationships can be repaired afterwards through reunions. Such "reconciliations" have been demonstrated, with both observational and experimental techniques, in a variety of species. These mechanisms seem particularly well-developed among individuals with close and cooperative relationships - such as grooming partners, kin, and allies - suggesting that the value of the relationship in one domain influences the resolution of conflicts of interest in other domains. In human children negotiations occur that decide the outcome of conflict to mutual satisfaction. Children themselves support the entitlement of owners whereas their parents, when intervening in children's disputes, emphasize sharing.

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