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Research on cognitive development (Homepage) Development of theory of mind. In one strand of work we have investigated how children can take another person's perspective and reason about what other people think and know. It is well established that children's ability to think about other people's knowledge and beliefs undergoes important changes between 3 and 4 years. We have found clear evidence for substantial additional changes in children's understanding between 5 and 7 years (e.g., 1, 2). In recent work with Andy Surtees we have begun to adapt methods we have devised for studying theory of mind in adults in order to test older children who pass standard developmental tests of theory of mind. We are finding that patterns observed in the errors of young children (e.g., true belief tasks are easier than false belief tasks) often continue to be observed in the response times of older children, even though these older children usually respond correctly. A recent project conducted with Iroise Dumontheil and Sarah-Jane Blakemore also suggests that there may be changes in the ability to take account of a speaker's knowledge even in late adolescence. Mental flexibility and tool use. Humans are very good at making tools, even though they are not the only species to do so. With Sarah Beck, Nicola Cutting and Jackie Chappell, I have begun to examine how tool use develops in children. This work was recently supported by a grant from the ESRC. Our findings suggest that even 3 and 4 year olds are prodigious tool users, but only when a tool is provided, or tool-making is demonstrated. Children find it much more difficult to innovate tools for themselves, suggesting that tool innovation may be a critical limiting step in both the onto– and phylogenetic development of tool use. The effect of symbols on executive function. The ability to adapt behaviour in a flexible manner is a mark of human cognition. In work with Dan Carroll I have investigated the development of mental flexibility. In one project we investigated how symbols can change the way in which children think about tasks, and how this helps them gain control over their behaviour. The effects we observe in children show interesting similarities and differences to the effects that symbols have on mental flexibility in non-human animals such as chimpanzees.
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Ian Apperly |