Children's understanding of death as the cessation of agency: a test using sleep versus death

被引:63
作者
Barrett, HC
Behne, T
机构
[1] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Anthropol, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA
[2] Max Planck Inst Human Dev, Ctr Adapt Behav & Cognit, Berlin, Germany
[3] Max Planck Inst Evolutionary Anthroopol, Leipzig, Germany
关键词
cognitive development; agency; death understanding; intuitive ontology; evolutionary psychology;
D O I
10.1016/j.cognition.2004.05.004
中图分类号
B84 [心理学];
学科分类号
04 ; 0402 ;
摘要
An important problem faced by children is discriminating between entities capable of goal-directed action, i.e. intentional agents, and non-agents. In the case of discriminating between living and dead animals, including humans, this problem is particularly difficult, because of the large number of perceptual cues that living and dead animals share. However, there are potential costs of failing to discriminate between living and dead animals, including unnecessary vigilance and lost opportunities from failing to realize that an animal, such as an animal killed for food, is dead. This might have led to the evolution of mechanisms specifically for distinguishing between living and dead animals in terms of their ability to act. Here we test this hypothesis by examining patterns of inferences about sleeping and dead organisms by Shuar and German children between 3 and 5-years old. The results show that by age 4, causal cues to death block agency attributions to animals and people, whereas cues to sleep do not. The developmental trajectory of this pattern of inferences is identical across cultures, consistent with the hypothesis of a living/dead discrimination mechanism as a reliably developing part of core cognitive architecture. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:93 / 108
页数:16
相关论文
共 31 条
[1]  
[Anonymous], 1996, HDB CHILDHOOD DEATH
[2]  
BARRETT HC, IN PRESS HDB EVOLUTI
[3]   Two reasons to abandon the false belief task as a test of theory of mind [J].
Bloom, P ;
German, TP .
COGNITION, 2000, 77 (01) :B25-B31
[4]  
Boyer Pascal., 2001, RELIG EXPLAINED EVOL
[5]   The development of the concept of death among Chinese and US children 3-17 years of age: From binary to ''fuzzy'' concepts? [J].
Brent, SB ;
Speece, MW ;
Lin, CG ;
DOng, Q ;
Yang, CM .
OMEGA-JOURNAL OF DEATH AND DYING, 1996, 33 (01) :67-83
[6]  
Carey S., 1985, CONCEPTUAL CHANGE CH
[7]  
Csibra G, 2003, COGNITIVE SCI, V27, P111, DOI 10.1207/s15516709cog2701_4
[8]   CHILDRENS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ANIMATES AND INANIMATES [J].
DOLGIN, KG ;
BEHREND, DA .
CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55 (04) :1646-1650
[9]  
GELMAN SA, 2002, HDB CHILDHOOD COGNI
[10]   TAKING THE INTENTIONAL STANCE AT 12 MONTHS OF AGE [J].
GERGELY, G ;
NADASDY, Z ;
CSIBRA, G ;
BIRO, S .
COGNITION, 1995, 56 (02) :165-193