Jeremy I. M. Carpendale

Constructing an understanding of mind: the development of children's social understanding within social interaction.

Theories of childrens developing understanding of mind tend to emphasize either individualistic processes of theory formation, maturation, or introspection, or the process of enculturation. However, such theories must be able to account for the accumulating evidence of the role of social interaction in the development of social understanding. We propose an alternative account, according to which the development of childrens social understanding occurs within triadic interaction involving the childs experience of the world as well as communicative interaction with others about their experience and beliefs (Chapman 1991; 1999). It is through such triadic interaction that children gradually construct knowledge of the world as well as knowledge of other people. We contend that the extent and nature of the social interaction children experience will influence the development of childrens social understanding. Increased opportunity to engage in cooperative social interaction and exposure to talk about mental states should facilitate the development of social understanding. We review evidence suggesting that childrens understanding of mind develops gradually in the context of social interaction. Therefore, we need a theory of development in this area that accords a fundamental role to social interaction, yet does not assume that children simply adopt socially available knowledge but rather that children construct an understanding of mind within social interaction.

The effects of parental scaffolding on preschoolers' executive function.

The present study explores the effects of parental scaffolding of childrens problem solving on the development of executive function (EF). Eighty-two children were assessed at 2, 3, and 4 years of age on a variety of EF tasks and, at ages 2 and 3, on a problem-solving puzzle with which parents offered structured assistance (i.e., scaffolding). Unlike previous studies of parental scaffolding, childrens EF was examined at each time point. Scaffolding at age 3 was found to have a direct effect on EF at age 4. Furthermore, scaffolding at age 2 had an indirect on EF at age 4 through the childs verbal ability at age 3.

Parental scaffolding and the development of executive function

Research has demonstrated that differential parental scaffolding utterances influence childrens development of executive function. Traditional conceptualizations of scaffolding, though, have difficulty in explaining how such differential effects influence childrens cognitive development; they do not account for the timing of parental utterances with respect to childrens currently occurring activities. We present a study examining the relationship between the timing of different parental scaffolding utterances and childrens attention-switching EF abilities. There was a strong relation between the timing of elaborative parental utterances and attention switching. We discuss the implications of the findings for the conceptualization of the scaffolding process.

The role of shared practice in joint attention

The infants participation in sequences of joint activity that require visual attention is usually seen as an outcome of and evidence for the existence of particular infant psychological competencies. In a review of the relevant literature, we suggest that what is presupposed in most theories of joint attention is the role that shared social practices play in understanding the mind. It is, in fact, with recourse to such practices that researchers theorize about the infants understanding of mind in the first instance. We argue: (1) the mind is not an entity that is separable from human activity; (2) knowledge of shared practices is what the developing agent requires to come to an understanding of their own mind and that of others; and (3) rather than searching for the best indicator of a true competence lying behind and necessary for joint attention, we should consider the various forms of interaction involving shared attention as constitutive of varying degrees of understanding. We consider the relevance of these arguments for contemporary social developmental theory.

Knowing minds, controlling actions: The developmental relations between theory of mind and executive function from 2 to 4 years of age

This longitudinal study examined the concurrent and predictive relations between executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) in 82 preschoolers who were assessed when they were 2, 3, and 4 years old. The results showed that the concurrent relation between EF and ToM, after controlling for age, verbal ability, and sex, was significant at 3 and 4 years of age but not at 2 years of age. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that EF at age 2 significantly predicted ToM at age 3 and that EF at age 3 significantly predicted ToM at age 4, over and above the effects of age, verbal ability, and prior performance on ToM tasks. However, ToM at ages 2 and 3 did not explain a significant amount of variance in EF at age 4. Bootstrap procedures revealed that verbal ability at age 3 fully mediated the relation between ToM at age 2 and EF at age 4.

The Cambridge companion to Piaget

1. Introduction: overview Ulrich Muller, Jeremy I. M. Carpendale, and Leslie Smith 2. The historical context of Piagets ideas Marylene Bennour and Jacques Voneche 3. Piagets developmental epistemology Leslie Smith 4. Piagets biology John G. Messerly 5. On the concept(s) of the social in Piaget Richard F. Kitchener 6. Piaget on equilibration Jan Boom 7. Constructive processes: abstraction, generalization, and dialectics Robert L. Campbell 8. Piaget and method Trevor Bond and Anastasia Tryphon 9. Infancy Ulrich Muller 10. Childhood Maximilian B. Bibok, Ulrich Muller, and Jeremy I. M. Carpendale 11. Adolescence David Moshman 12. Piagets theory of moral development Jeremy I. M. Carpendale 13. Piagets enduring contribution to a science of consciousness Michel Ferrari 14. Piaget and affectivity Bryan W. Sokol and Stuart I. Hammond 15. Piagets pedagogy Leslie Smith 16. Piaget in the United States, 1925-71 Yeh Hsueh 17. The minds staircase revised Thomas Kesselring 18. Dynamic development: a neo-Piagetian approach L. Todd Rose and Kurt W. Fischer.

The Development of Pointing: From Personal Directedness to Interpersonal Direction

Although there is consensus about the importance of early communicative gestures such as pointing, there is an ongoing debate regarding how infants develop the ability to understand and produce pointing gestures. We review competing theories regarding this development and use observations from a diary study of infants’ social development, focusing primarily on one infant from 6 to 14 months to illustrate a currently neglected view of the development of pointing. According to this view, infants first use their extended index finger as a manifestation of their own attention that emerges from their tactile exploration of close-by objects. Their gesture gradually becomes social in its use as infants become aware of the meaning of their action for adults.

A Social Pragmatic Model of Talk: Implications for Research on the Development of Children’s Social Understanding

We present a social pragmatic model of talk-as-interaction. Talk consists of observable and orderly sequences of turns by means of which participants together construct and interpret action. The meaning of a speaker’s turn, the action accomplished, is observable in the manifest details of that turn and responses to it. We discuss methodological implications and illustrate the relevance of this social pragmatic model for theory and research on human development through an analysis of the role of talk in the development of children’s understanding of mental states.

Introduction: Links Between Social Interaction and Executive Function

The term executive function is used increasingly within developmental psychology and is often taken to refer to unfolding brain processes. We trace the origins of research on executive function to show that the link with social interaction has a long history. We suggest that a recent frenzy of research exploring methods for studying individual executive skills should pay more attention to the tradition exploring the role of social interaction in their development.

Gender and Perspective Differences in Moral Judgement and Moral Orientation

Abstract Forty male and female adults responded to two forms of Kohlbergs test‐‐one in the standard third‐person form, and the other imagining themselves as the protagonists in Kohlbergs dilemmas. Females obtained slightly lower moral maturity scores than males across both forms, but there were no sex differences in moral orientation. There were no significant effects for the perspective from which Kohlbergs test was taken, on either moral maturity or moral orientation. Care‐oriented moral judgements were more prevalent in dilemmas involving life vs. law conflicts than in dilemmas involving conscience vs. punishment conflicts. Subjects did not consistently make either care‐ or justice‐oriented moral judgements. There was a significant negative correlation between the frequency of care‐oriented judgements and moral maturity for males, but not for females. Although these results are partially consistent with the possibility that Kohlbergs test and scoring system are biased against females, they do not s...