Theory of Mind in the Pacific: Reasoning Across Cultures (Heidelberg Studies in Pacific Anthropology)

This book is the result of intensive collaboration between anthropologists and psychologists on the scientific discipline of cross-cultural research on social cognitive development. Five interdisciplinarily composed research teams allotted to five Pacific societies were interested in the question of when and how children come to assign mental states to others. The ascription of desires or beliefs to other people is a milestone of human sociality. It allows us to understand, explain, and predict human behavior. During the last 20 years, research on children’s knowledge about the mental world, better known as theory of mind research, has become a central topic in developmental psychology and the role of cultural impact is subject of various theoretical and hitherto spare empirical accounts. Given fundamental differences between the culture of Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia with regard to factors that are supposed to influence the development of social cognitive abilities, this research project, combining profound anthropological analysis of different Pacific cultures with thoroughly conducted experimental work by developmental psychologists provides deeper insight in current debates on the ontogeny of theory of mind competencies. Contents......Page 6 Maps......Page 8 Map Prologue 1: Pacific Islands......Page 15 Map 2.1: The Islands of Tonga......Page 53 Map 3.1: The Samoan Islands......Page 91 Map 4.1: The Micronesia Islands......Page 126 Map 5.1: The Finisterre Range and the Yupno region......Page 156 Map 6.1: The Bosmun region......Page 205 Figure 2.1: Performance on the false belief question of the three- to four- and the five- to six-year-old participants......Page 72 Figure 2.2: Performance on the representational change question of the three- to four- and the five- to six-year-old participants......Page 73 Figure 2.3: Performance on the false belief question I of the three- to four- and five- to six-year-old participants......Page 74 Figure 3.1: Performance on false belief task for children aged three to eight and eight to fourteen by percentage......Page 109 Table 3.2: Number of children by age who failed and succeeded......Page 110 Figure 4.1: Material used on Yap Island......Page 146 Figure 4.2: Material used on Fais Island......Page 147 Figure 5.1. Schematic experimental setup during the location change task......Page 176 Figure 5.2: Children’s performance in the critical false belief tasks of the location change game, compared to chance......Page 183 Illustration 2.1: Children of a Wesleyan kindergarten in Nuku‘alofa......Page 60 Illustration 2.2: Experimental material used in the change of location task......Page 64 Illustration 2.3: Children during the warm-up period preceding the experiments......Page 66 Illustration 3.1: False belief task in village 1 Primary School......Page 106 Illustration 3.2: Test-setting with camera in village 2 Primary School......Page 107 Illustration 4.1: Fais Island......Page 132 Illustration 4.2: One of the Fais chiefs thatching the roof and doing women’s work......Page 133 Illustration 4.3: Children participating in a funeral ceremony......Page 135 Illustration 4.4: Man on Fais carving a canoe, observed by his three- and five-year-old children......Page 137 Illustration 4.5: Three-year-old research participant, father (middle) and research assistant on Fais Island......Page 142 Illustration 4.6: Participants (three and five years old) on Yap Island......Page 143 Illustration 5.1: Upper Gua village......Page 158 Illustration 5.2: Inside a traditional house......Page 159 Illustration 5.3: Bainang surrounded by her children......Page 161 Illustration 5.4: After the testing session: Wilma, the field assistant, with children holding soap, "bebi kat" and biscuits......Page 170 Illustration 6.1: Bosmun children sitting in the motor canoe to Daiden......Page 219 Illustration 6.2: Mask-like leaves which were offered as a substitute for the hand-puppets......Page 223 Illustration 6.3: Retnus (left) and Waitnus (right)......Page 225 Table 3.1: Number of children tested per class/school and village......Page 102 Table 3.3: Number of correct and wrong replies in the study by Callaghan et al. (2005) in Samoa......Page 111 Table 5.1. Yupno children’s performance in the deceptive container task......Page 182 Table 5.2: Yupno children’s performance across the two critical location change tasks......Page 184 Table 6.1: Modified representational change paradigm (cf. Perner et al. 1987)......Page 216 Table 6.2: Frequencies and percentages of Bosmun children’s responses to the think question......Page 220 Table 6.3: Frequencies and percentages of the Bosmun children’s exclusion of the Waitnus and Retnus puppets......Page 228 Table 7.1: Overview of all test results (Bender and Beller 2012: 205)......Page 256 Prologue......Page 12 GUSTAV JAHODA - Foreword: How We Got to Where We Are......Page 16 1 Human Social Cognition – The Theory of Mind Research......Page 24 2 Theory of Mind in Tonga: The Onset of Representational Change and False Belief Understanding in Tongan Children......Page 50 3 False Belief Understanding in Samoa: Evidence for Continuous Development and Cross-Cultural Variability......Page 90 4 Psychology Meets Cultural Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Research with Children in Micronesia......Page 120 5 Of Biscuits, Soap and Stones. Representational Change and False Belief Understanding among Yupno Children in Papua New Guinea......Page 154 6 Investigating the Understanding of False Belief among the Bosmun of Northeast Papua New Guinea......Page 204 7 Epilogue. Reflections on Personhood and the Theory of Mind......Page 244 Notes on Contributors......Page 268 Index......Page 274 Contents 6 List of Maps, Figures, Illustrations and Tables 8 Maps 8 Map Prologue 1: Pacific Islands 15 Map 2.1: The Islands of Tonga 53 Map 3.1: The Samoan Islands 91 Map 4.1: The Micronesia Islands 126 Map 5.1: The Finisterre Range and the Yupno region 156 Map 6.1: The Bosmun region 205 Figures 72 Figure 2.1: Performance on the false belief question of the three- to four- and the five- to six-year-old participants 72 Figure 2.2: Performance on the representational change question of the three- to four- and the five- to six-year-old participants 73 Figure 2.3: Performance on the false belief question I of the three- to four- and five- to six-year-old participants 74 Figure 3.1: Performance on false belief task for children aged three to eight and eight to fourteen by percentage 109 Figure 3.2: Percentage of children by age who passed the false belief task 110 Figure 4.1: Material used on Yap Island 146 Figure 4.2: Material used on Fais Island 147 Figure 5.1. Schematic experimental setup during the location change task 176 Figure 5.2: Children’s performance in the critical false belief tasks of the location change game, compared to chance 183 Illustrations 60 Illustration 2.1: Children of a Wesleyan kindergarten in Nuku‘alofa 60 Illustration 2.2: Experimental material used in the change of location task 64 Illustration 2.3: Children during the warm-up period preceding the experiments 66 Illustration 3.1: False belief task in village 1 Primary School 106 Illustration 3.2: Test-setting with camera in village 2 Primary School 107 Illustration 4.1: Fais Island 132 Illustration 4.2: One of the Fais chiefs thatching the roof and doing women’s work 133 Illustration 4.3: Children participating in a funeral ceremony 135 Illustration 4.4: Man on Fais carving a canoe, observed by his three- and five-year-old children 137 Illustration 4.5: Three-year-old research participant, father (middle) and research assistant on Fais Island 142 Illustration 4.6: Participants (three and five years old) on Yap Island 143 Illustration 5.1: Upper Gua village 158 Illustration 5.2: Inside a traditional house 159 Illustration 5.3: Bainang surrounded by her children 161 Illustration 5.4: After the testing session: Wilma, the field assistant, with children holding soap, "bebi kat" and biscuits 170 Illustration 6.1: Bosmun children sitting in the motor canoe to Daiden 219 Illustration 6.2: Mask-like leaves which were offered as a substitute for the hand-puppets 223 Illustration 6.3: Retnus (left) and Waitnus (right) 225 Tables 102 Table 3.1: Number of children tested per class/school and village 102 Table 3.2: Number of children by age who failed and succeeded 110 Table 3.3: Number of correct and wrong replies in the study by Callaghan et al. (2005) in Samoa 111 Table 5.1. Yupno children’s performance in the deceptive container task 182 Table 5.2: Yupno children’s performance across the two critical location change tasks 184 Table 6.1: Modified representational change paradigm (cf. Perner et al. 1987) 216 Table 6.2: Frequencies and percentages of Bosmun children’s responses to the think question 220 Table 6.3: Frequencies and percentages of the Bosmun children’s exclusion of the Waitnus and Retnus puppets 228 Table 7.1: Overview of all test results (Bender and Beller 2012: 205) 256 Prologue 12 GUSTAV JAHODA - Foreword: How We Got to Where We Are 16 1 Human Social Cognition – The Theory of Mind Research 24 2 Theory of Mind in Tonga: The Onset of Representational Change and False Belief Understanding in Tongan Children 50 3 False Belief Understanding in Samoa: Evidence for Continuous Development and Cross-Cultural Variability 90 4 Psychology Meets Cultural Anthropology: Interdisciplinary Research with Children in Micronesia 120 5 Of Biscuits, Soap and Stones. Representational Change and False Belief Understanding among Yupno Children in Papua New Guinea 154 6 Investigating the Understanding of False Belief among the Bosmun of Northeast Papua New Guinea 204 7 Epilogue. Reflections on Personhood and the Theory of Mind 244 Notes on Contributors 268 Index 274 Universitätsverlag,Winter;,Heidelberg;,ISBN,978-3-8253-6203-4 Heidelberger Studies in Pacific Anthropology The ascription of desires or beliefs to other people is a milestone of human sociality. It allows us to understand, explain, and predict human behaviour. During the last years, research on children's knowledge about the mental world, better known as theory of mind research, has become a central topic in developmental psychology and the role of cultural impact is subject of various theoretical yet hitherto few empirical accounts. This book is the result of intensive collaboration between anthropologists and psychologists in the field of cross-cultural research on social cognitive development. Five interdisciplinary research teams, coming from the University of Heidelberg, were investigating five Pacific Island societies. All together, they were interested in the question of how and when children in these different cultures come to assign mental states to others. This unique research project combines sound ethnography of different Pacific cultures with thoroughly conducted experimental work, done by developmental psychologists; it presents a shared, thoughtful analysis of the results and provides deeper insight into current debates on the ontogeny of theory of mind competencies.