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Related Experiment Videos

Shared intentionality.

Michael Tomasello1, Malinda Carpenter

  • 1Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. tomas@eva.mpg.de

Developmental Science
|December 22, 2006
PubMed
Summary
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Shared intentionality significantly enhances children's cognitive development by transforming basic social skills into more complex abilities. This process is crucial for integrating biological and cultural aspects of human development.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Comparative Psychology

Background:

  • Early cognitive development relies on social-cognitive skills.
  • Understanding the role of shared intentionality is key to explaining human uniqueness.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To highlight the importance of shared intentionality in children's cognitive development.
  • To examine the transformation of social-cognitive skills through shared intentionality.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of skills in chimpanzees (individualistic) versus human toddlers (shared intentionality).
  • Examination of four key social-cognitive skills: gaze following, social manipulation, group activity, and social learning.

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • Gaze following transforms into joint attention.
  • Social manipulation evolves into cooperative communication.
  • Group activity becomes collaboration.
  • Social learning is enhanced into instructed learning.

    • Conclusions:

    • Shared intentionality fundamentally alters social-cognitive skills in human development.
    • It plays a vital role in bridging biologically and culturally based developmental theories.