=Paper=
{{Paper
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|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1419/section0017.pdf
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==None==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1419/section0017.pdf
Mental Files in Development
Chair
Josef Perner
Speakers
Patricia Ganea
University of Toronto
patricia.ganea@utoronto.ca
Ágnes Melinda Kovács
Central European University
kovacsag@ceu.hu
Josef Perner
University of Salzburg
josef.perner@sbg.ac.at
Discussant
Brian Leahy
University of Konstanz
brian.leahy@uni-konstanz.de
The concept of mental file reflects the realization The second paper by Josef Perner uses coreferential
that different concepts used in different areas of cognitive object files to represent children’s understanding of belief: a
science share central features. Mental files play an important regular file for an object of thought to represent the child’s
role in philosophy, addressing longstanding issues about own view and a vicarious file for that same object to
Russell’s problem of acquaintance and Frege’s represent another person’s belief about the object. The
(foundational problems of logics about identity and the assumption that children around 4 years become able to
sense-reference distinction. As discourse referents they play understand the coreferentiality of files helps explain why
a role for solving problems of reference in linguistics. In children at this age understand false beliefs as well as
psychology they have only been used as object files in identity statements. The third paper by Ágnes Kovács uses
research on attention and search and on tracking visually mental files for a similar purpose but in a quite different
moving objects. They have been used in infancy research to way. Her belief files represent the content of a person’s
explain infants’ individuation of objects and their belief with the goal to explain the speed with which we and
understanding of numerosity. They have not played any even young babies adapt to changes in another person’s
significant role in later child development. It has not yet belief.
entered research on children’s theory of mind, which is
surprising since mental files theory in philosophy has been
used extensively to deal with the pernicious logical Object files in children’s search for objects
problems created by statements about beliefs and other Patricia Ganea
mental terms. This symposium will close this gap.
The first paper by Patricia Ganea covers 2-year Much of the information that we have about the world is
olds’ problems with object search when they have seen an based entirely on testimony provided by other people. This
object hidden in one place and are later told that the object is certainly the case for information that we have about
has been moved to a new place. They tend to search in the events that happened too far away or too long ago for us to
original place. Management of files for the object as well as witness them. Recent findings show limitations in children's
its various locations can shed new light on these problems. ability to verbally update what they know about an absent
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object (Ganea & Harris, 2010; 2013). More specifically, Belief files in infants’ social interaction
when 24-month-olds were told that an object that they had Ágnes Kovács
put in one container had been moved to a different container
during their temporary absence, they often searched for the Humans seem to readily track their conspecifics’ mental
object on the basis of their earlier, first-hand observation of states, such as their goals and beliefs from early infancy.
its whereabouts. This error did not occur in a control However, the underlying cognitive architecture that enables
condition in which they saw the object moved to a new such powerful abilities remains unclear. A basic
location rather than learning about its movement through representational structure, the belief file, could provide the
language. foundation for efficiently encoding, and updating
As repositories of information about objects mental information about, others’ beliefs in online social
files can be extremely sophisticated and the management of interactions. I will discuss the representational possibilities
such files can be logically complex. I will discuss two types offered by the belief file and the ways in which the
of update of a mental file. A conservative update of a file repertoire of mental state reasoning is shaped by the
simply extends the list of properties and relations in it. A characteristics of its constituents. A series of questions will
revision update involves the elimination of some of these be outlined concerning the representational skeleton of the
properties and relations and their replacement with belief file, sketching a possible structure that supports the
incompatible properties and relations. I will show that rapid encoding and re-identification of belief related
children have difficulty updating an object's mental file information (e.g., variables for the agent, as the belief holder
when the update requires management of multiple mental and for the belief-content). After presenting data pointing to
files that are about the object. the possible limitations of the belief attribution system, I
will examine some of its characteristics that might enable a
flexibility that is often neglected. Results from a further
Vicarious object files in children’s representation of study involving 15-month-olds infants suggest that
belief operations involving belief files are not impeded by the
Josef Perner absence of precise first-person information regarding their
contents. In fact, the system permits manipulations with
A mental file represents an object. The information on the “empty” belief files, allowing humans to ascribe beliefs to
file represents what one knows about the object. The conspecifics based on little or no direct information
function of the file is to track the object, its referent, and regarding the content of the mental state. Such an analysis
accumulate knowledge over time. An interesting case occurs aims to advance our understanding of how spontaneous
when one conceives of an object in different ways, e.g., the belief attribution may be performed, and to provide an
famous Roman orator as Tully or as Cicero. This can be insight into the possible mechanisms that allow humans to
represented by two different files that have the same successfully navigate the social world.
referent. To represent that the two files have the same
referent the files have to be informationally linked.
Whatever is true of the person but has been recorded on
only one of the files needs to be made available to the other,
coreferential file. To understand identity statements, e.g.,
“Tully is Cicero,” one has to be able to link coreferential
files.
Coreferential files can also be used to distinguish
one’s own beliefs about an object, recorded on a regular
file, from what another believes about it, recorded on a
vicarious file for the same object. To understand that the
other person’s belief is about the same object as one’s own
the vicarious file has to be linked to the regular file,
representing the identity of the object.
The simple developmental assumption that children
become able to link coreferential files around 4 years can
explain why children at this age become able to process
identity statements as they become able to answer questions
about another person’s mistaken beliefs.
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