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It takes time and experience to learn how to interpret gaze in mentalistic terms

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 18:47 authored by David LeavensDavid Leavens
What capabilities are required for an organism to evince an 'explicit' understanding of gaze as a mentalistic phenomenon? One possibility is that mentalistic interpretations of gaze, like concepts of unseen, supernatural beings, are culturally-specific concepts, acquired through cultural learning. These abstract concepts may either require a shared, symbolic code for intergenerational transmission and therefore be uniquely human cognitive phenomena (like belief in Santa Claus) or, alternatively, language may only facilitate their acquisition. Thus, the possibility remains that other organisms can acquire these mentalistic conceptions of gaze, perhaps over much longer time courses, compared to humans, which would limit to very long-lived species the possibility of acquiring these abstract concepts. -Invited commentary on Doherty (2006)

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Infant and Child Development

ISSN

1522-7227

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons

Issue

2

Volume

15

Page range

187-190

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Notes

Commentary on Doherty (2006)

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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