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Beyond imitative learning : Human 'pedagogy' as a mechanism of cultural transmission| old_uid | 974 |
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| title | Beyond imitative learning : Human 'pedagogy' as a mechanism of cultural transmission |
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| start_date | 2006/03/29 |
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| schedule | 17h-19h |
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| online | no |
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| details | conférence en anglais |
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| summary | The talk will critically examine recent theories of human cultural learning that propose that an identification-based automatic drive to imitate conspecifics evolved in humans as a species-specific adaptation to ensure cultural reproduction. I shall challenge both the motivational and cognitive-structural assumptions of this position by reviewing new data demonstrating the selective interpretive nature of imitative learning of novel means and artifact functions in 14-month-olds. These studies also highlight the crucial role that the model’s ostensive communicative cues play in inducing the selective interpretive inferences by the learner to identify what new and relevant information is conveyed ’for’ him to be selectively imitated and acquired.
Then I shall outline our new theory of human cultural learning called human ‘pedagogy’ (Csibra & Gergely, 2006* Gergely & Csibra, 2005 , in press**). This human-specific cognitive adaptation is hypothesized to be an innate, cue-driven, dedicated communicative system of mutual design selected and specialized for the fast and efficient transmission of new and relevant cultural knowledge from knowledeable to ignorant conspecifics. The talk will summarize the design specifications of the system of pedagogical knowledge transfer and recent empirical evidence supporting its early existence in ontogenetic development. In closing, I shall outline our just-so-story of the possible evolutionary conditions that may have led to the selection of pedagogy during hominid evolution. |
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| responsibles | Sperber, Origgi |
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