Social Minds in Development: The Social Foundations of Human Cognition
Lecture by Tenure Track Assistant Professor Dora Kampis.
The lecture is given as part of the final assessment in the tenure-track program.
My lecture will examine how human cognition is fundamentally shaped by social processes from the earliest stages of development. I first argue that the ability to represent others’ mental contents is rich and early emerging. I then present evidence that infants do not merely register others’ perspectives, but early cognition is strongly guided by others’ attention and perspective, sometimes even at the cost of their own accuracy. I will propose that this might facilitate early learning, raise whether it may be unique to humans, and outline a developmental trajectory of understanding others and oneself. Finally, I will discuss how this self-other coordination plays a crucial role in social and cognitive development and how it might relate to emerging memory abilities, including the ability to track sources of knowledge and specific experiences. Together, this outlines a developmental framework in which social processes shape what information is selected and encoded, with downstream consequences for learning, memory, and social functioning.
Successful completion of the final assessment will result in promotion to Associate Professor.
The lecture will be followed by a reception in the canteen at the Department of Psychology at 16:00, Øster Farimagsgade 2A, 03.2.M202
Deadline: 12 May
