Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-v2srd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-19T17:17:21.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Learning in and about opaque worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Denis Tatone  and
Gergely Csibra
Denis Tatone
Affiliation:
Cognitive Development Center, Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary. tatone_denis@ceu-budapest.edu csibrag@ceu.hu http://www.babakutato.hu/lab-members/denis-tatone http://cognitivescience.ceu.edu/people/gergely-csibra
Gergely Csibra
Affiliation:
Cognitive Development Center, Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary. tatone_denis@ceu-budapest.edu csibrag@ceu.hu http://www.babakutato.hu/lab-members/denis-tatone http://cognitivescience.ceu.edu/people/gergely-csibra
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We argue that direct active teaching in humans exhibits at least two properties (open-endedness and content opacity) that make the recognition of teaching episodes without ostension untenable. Thus, while we welcome Kline's functional approach to the analysis of teaching, we think that she ignores important features of the socio-environmental niche in which human teaching likely evolved.

Information

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 38 , 2015 , e68
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J. & Henrich, J. (2011) The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation. [Colloquium Paper]. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 108(Suppl. 2):10918–25. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1100290108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Csibra, G. & Gergely, G. (2009) Natural pedagogy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13(4):148–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Csibra, G. & Gergely, G. (2011) Natural pedagogy as evolutionary adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366(1567):1149–57. doi:10.1098/rstb.2010.0319.Google Scholar
Gergely, G. & Jacob, P. (2012) Reasoning about instrumental and communicative agency in human infancy. In: Advances in Child Development and Behavior, vol. 43: Rational constructivism in cognitive development, ed. Kushnir, T. & Xu, F., pp. 59–94. [Book Series editor, Benson, J. B.]. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hoppitt, W. J. E., Brown, G. R., Kendal, R., Rendell, L., Thornton, A., Webster, M. M. & Laland, K. N. (2008) Lessons from animal teaching. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 23(9):486–93. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2008.05.008.Google Scholar
Sperber, D. (1997) Intuitive and reflective beliefs. Mind and Language 12:67–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar