Shared intentionality

We argue for the importance of processes of shared intentionality in children's early cognitive development. We look briefly at four important social‐cognitive skills and how they are transformed by shared intentionality. In each case, we look first at a kind of individualistic version of the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental science 2007-01, Vol.10 (1), p.121-125
Main Authors: Tomasello, Michael, Carpenter, Malinda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Animals
Attention
Child Development
Child Development - physiology
Cognition & reasoning
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive Development
Cooperation
Cooperative Behavior
Developmental Psychology
Developmental Stages
Eye Movements
Group Activities
Humans
Individuality
Infant
Intention
Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal Relations
Learning - physiology
Pan troglodytes - physiology
Primates
Social Cognition
Social Development
Social interaction
Socialization
Theory
Toddlers
Young Children
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Summary:We argue for the importance of processes of shared intentionality in children's early cognitive development. We look briefly at four important social‐cognitive skills and how they are transformed by shared intentionality. In each case, we look first at a kind of individualistic version of the skill – as exemplified most clearly in the behavior of chimpanzees – and then at a version based on shared intentionality – as exemplified most clearly in the behavior of human 1‐ and 2‐year‐olds. We thus see the following transformations: gaze following into joint attention, social manipulation into cooperative communication, group activity into collaboration, and social learning into instructed learning. We conclude by highlighting the role that shared intentionality may play in integrating more biologically based and more culturally based theories of human development.
ISSN:1363-755X
1467-7687
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00573.x