PSYCHOLOGY 607
THEORY OF MIND
Winter 2001
Wednesday, 10:00- 11:50, Straub
156
|
Dr.
Lou Moses |
Dr.
Marjorie Taylor |
|
Phone:
6-4918 |
Phone:
6-4933 |
|
Office:
397 Straub |
Office:
395 Straub |
|
Office
Hours: Wed 2-3, Thurs 2-3 |
Office
Hours: Mon 2-3, Tues 2-3 |
|
Email:
moses@darkwing.uoregon.edu |
Email:
mtaylor@oregon.uoregon.edu |
|
|
|
General
Description:
By theory of mind, we are referring to the rich
network of mentalistic concepts that adults use to interpret human action and
interaction. In this seminar, we will examine recent theory and research on
children's developing capacity to predict and explain their own and other
people's behavior in terms of beliefs, desires, intentions, emotional states
and so on. The seminar will provide a
broad introduction to central theory of mind topics with particular emphasis on
how research in the areas of autism and developmental cognitive neuroscience
informs our understanding of theory of mind development.
Textbook:
Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Cohen, D.
J. (Eds.). (2000). Understanding other minds: Perspectives from
developmental cognitive neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Copies of the text are available from the
Bookstore. Supplemental readings will
be available in 348 Straub.
Seminar
Requirements:
·
Each student will be
asked to help lead the discussion for at least one seminar meeting during the
term. The discussion leader should come
prepared to briefly summarize the week's readings, and to present ideas or
questions to help “jump start” the discussion if it happens to stall or stray
too far from the topic at hand.
Discussion leaders should consult with one of us in the week before the
relevant seminar meeting.
·
In addition, each
student will be required to write a short research proposal (approx. 5-8 pages)
based on some aspect of the course material.
The research itself does not need to be conducted. The proposal should
summarize the relevant literature, provide a rationale for the research,
describe the proposed research methodology and how the data would be analyzed,
and discuss the main ways in which the findings might come out. Students will
present their proposals in class in Week 9 (March 7). These presentations will provide an opportunity for students to
obtain feedback from the class on their research ideas before the written
proposals are due (Monday, March 19).
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS
Chapters
are from Baron-Cohen, Tager-Flusberg, & Cohen (2000).
JAN
10: INTRODUCTORY MEETING AND
OVERVIEW OF AREA
Ch
2: Wellman & Lagatutta
Ch
1: Baron-Cohen
JAN
17: ORIGINS OF THEORY OF MIND IN
INFANCY
Ch
3: Gopnik et al
Baldwin, D.A. & Baird, J.A. (in
press). Discerning intentions in
dynamic human action. Trends in
Cognitive Sciences.
Woodward, A.L., Somerville, J.A, Guajardo, J.J. (in
press). How infants make sense of
intentional action. In B.F. Malle, L.J. Moses, & D.A. Baldwin (Eds.), Intentions
and intentionality: Foundations of social cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ch
4: Baron-Cohen
Ch
9: Happé
Ch
10: Plaisted
JAN
31: THEORY OF MIND AND AUTISM II
Ch
16: Corcoran
Ch
17: Charman
Ch
18: Swettenham
Ch
5: de Villiers
Ch
6: Tager-Flusberg
Ch
8: Harris & Leevers
FEB
14: THEORY OF MIND AND EXECUTIVE
FUNCTIONING
Ch.
7: Perner & Lang
Moses, L.J. & Carlson, S.M. (2000). Executive functioning and children’s
theories of mind. Paper presented
at the conference on Contributions of the Prefrontal Cortex to Cognitive Development,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Pennington, B.F., Rogers, S.J., Bennetto, L.,
McMahon-Griffith, E., Reed, D.T., & Shyu, V. (1997). Validity tests of the
executive dysfunction hypothesis of autism. In J. Russell (Ed.). Autism as
an executive disorder. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FEB
21: THE BRAIN BASIS OF THEORY OF
MIND I
Ch
11: Stone
Ch
12: Emery & Perrett
Ch
13: Brownell et al
Ch
14: Frith & Frith
Ch
15: Klin et al.
Sabbagh, M.A. & Taylor, M. (2000). Neural
correlates of theory of mind reasoning: An event-related potential study. Psychological
Science, 11, 46-50.
MARCH
7: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS
MARCH
14: THEORY OF MIND AND EVOLUTION
Ch
19: Povinelli & O’Neill
Ch
20: Mithen
Ch
21: Vinden & Astington