The Paradox of False Belief Understanding : : The Role of Cognitive and Situational Factors for the Development of Social Cognition / / Julia Wolf.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Ebook Package English 2021
• VerfasserIn: Wolf, Julia,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Epistemic Studies : Philosophy of Science, Cognition and Mind , 50
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XI, 152 p.)

Our ability to understand others is one of the most central parts of human life, but explaining how this ability develops remains a controversial issue, exercising psychologists and philosophers alike. Within this literature the Paradox of False Belief Understanding remains one of the main open challenges. Based on an up to date overview of the empirical and theoretical literature, this book highlights the significance of this paradox for our understanding of the development of social cognition and provides a new explanation of it in the form of the Situational Mental File Account. Central features of the account are, firstly, identitfying three distinct stages in the development of belief understanding and, secondly, elaborating the role of both cognitive and situational factors as well as their interaction in the development of belief understanding. This account is also applied to the related phenomenon of pretend play, demonstrating the potential for a wider application of the account. This account generates both new empirical predications and a framework for further theoretical work, thereby providing a fruitful ground for further interdisciplinary research in this area.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- List of Acronyms -- Introduction -- 1 The Significance of the False Belief Task -- 2 The False Belief Task – A Developmental Sketch of the Paradox of False Belief Understanding -- 3 Theories of Mindreading – The Role of Cognitive and Situational Factors in Belief Understanding -- 4 Situational Mental File Account -- 5 Finding a Point of View: Vicarious Mental Files and Perspective Taking -- 6 Pretend Play and Its Importance for Mindreading -- Conclusions and Outlook -- Bibliography -- Subject Index -- Author Index