>===== Original Message From moq_discuss@moq.org =====
Hi Jonathan, Marco, all
JONATHAN
and also the Cartesian mind-matter
>duality - surely "Cognito Ergo Sum" is the very essence of
>self-awareness!!!!!
ERIN: I just wanted to tell you about something I thought was interesting.
Have you ever heard of the metacognition research? Cognition--thinking and
Metacognition-- thinking about thinking. The metacognition literature states
that Descartes should have wrote "Metacognito Ergo Sum". The nonhuman animal
cognitive research makes me think they are right.
The most interesting in my opinion is the children metacognition where they
show around 4 or 5 a child develops a theory of mind. There are several
tasks that distinguish this ability. One quick explanation of one is the false
belief task. Here they are told a story like "Sally and Jenny were in a room
and Sally put a candy in the blue cupboard. Sally left the room and when she
was gone Jenny took the candy out of the blue cupboard and put it in the red
cupboard. The child is asked when Sally comes back where is she going to look
for the candy. Younger children 3 yrs old can not inhibit their own knowledge
of where it is and always respond the blue one. Where around 4 or 5 they
start to say the red cupboard. "
There are other tasks like appearance-reality where there is a box of crackers
filled with pencils. You asked the child what is in the box. They say
"crackers". You open the box and show them the pencils. Then try and ask
them what did they think was in it or what does somebody who just comes into
the room will think is in it and they keep saying pencils.
*** another interesting note is that autistics fail the false-belief task but
pass if it it is an identical memory task such as a false photograph task.
Also I wanted to quickly say that I distinguish these perspective taking
skills from self-awareness. The first indication of self-awareness is in
infancy when they do a rouge test, where they put lipstick on the infants nose
and set it in front of a mirror. If the infant touches its nose then it is
aware that the reflection is them. Some primates pass this test also. So
personally I think self-awareness is a gradual development and when the 4/5 yr
old passes the theory of mind tasks is a huge step in ego development.
Cheers,
Erin
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