Paris - July 2007Discourse – External Referents ESF- Metacognition 1 Discourse and External...

Paris - July 2007 Discourse – External ReferentsESF- Metacognition

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Discourse and External Anchors in

Developmental Thought

Josef Perner

Austria

Financial Support:


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In collaboration with

Johannes Brandl — Philosophy Salzburg

Martin Doherty — Psychology Sterling

Alan Garnham — Psychology Sussex

Bibiane Rendl — Psychology Salzburg

Manuel Sprung — Psychology S. Mississippi Innsbruck

Gabi Waidmann — Psychology Salzburg

Inspirations by: Mike Martin


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Referential Expressions

Russell’s Problem

Referential expressions are expressions that refer to something.

What do referential terms refer to? “Napoleon B.”

“The King of France”

“The present King of France” ?

Louis XIII

Louis XIV

?


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Russell’s Theory of Description

There are more or less no referential descriptions but existential claims: “The present king of France is bald” RTD: x (y (Ky x = y) & Bx)

which captures: At least one thing is K (present King of France) At most one thing is K Whatever is K is B (bald).


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Problems with Russell

The existential interpretation makes it difficult to integrate information from different sentences in a text.

The present King of France is bald. The present King of France uses NANO*shampoo. These are two false sentences (full stop). No sense that

we are talking, within a story, about the same entity.

* nicotinic acid N-Oxide


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Escaping Russell

Intentional objects as referents

Discourse Referents (Karttunen, 1976) Discourse Referents as Hubs for Information

Integration: Discourse Representation Theory DRT (Kamp &

Reily, 1995) Discourse Referents as File Cards:

File Change Semantics (Heim, 2002):


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1

is a womanwas bitten by 2

2

is a dogbit 1jumped over 3

3

is a fencewas jumped over by 2

+

(a) A woman was bitten by a dog. (b) It jumped over a fence.

Integrating Information within a story

File Change Semantics: Heim's Example


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Integrating information within a story Separation of “what is talked about” (DR) from “what is said

about it” (info on DR): cross reference by DR#s. Reference within story:

Descriptions on card Relating story to the world

External anchors Reference to external objects: anchoring conditions

Perspective relative talk Defining labels put a “perspective” on the external referent

This mouse is big This animal is small

4 Functions of discourse referents


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#1

:= a mouseis BIG …

cond: is a mouse,on this display, looks like:

Discourse referents

Refinements

DR-identifier

Defining label (name): sets perspectivediscourse reference

Attributive information: interpreted in relation to perspective of label

Discourse referent (DR)

Anchoring conditions (formal anchors): determine external referent (anchor)

external referent (external anchor)


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Discourse referent = mental referent

Discourse referents are mental entities required for understanding discourse

hence their name But really they are “intentional objects”

(thought-of objects) Also required for any kind of thinking that goes

beyond perception (maybe even there).

NOT intrinsically tied to language


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Purpose of all this

Explaining difficulties with alternative naming


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Alternative Naming (Doherty & Perner 1998): Vocabulary check

Where is the “bunny?”

Where is the “cup?”

Where is the “rabbit?”


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Puppet, what’s this?

[Name of child], now you say the other name!

It is a rabbit

It is a bunny

Alternative Naming: Synonyms

Children have difficulties until they are about 4½ years old (see Perner et al., 2002)


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Alternative Names: Name-Name (NN)

Synonyms

Bunny - Rabbit

Categories

Fruit - Pear


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Control Conditions

Name - Colour

Cup - Red

Colour - Colour

Yellow - Green

Name - Part

Monkey - Tail

Part - Part

Head - Tail


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Results: Children’s Performance ctd.


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Any explanations?


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File-card Explanation


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External anchor

Alternative Naming: NN Control: CC"This is a mouse.“ “This is green.”"This is an animal.“ “This is yellow.”

#2

:= an animalis small …

cond:

#1


cond:

#1

:= a ballis part yellow is part green

cond:


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This is “meta-cognitive” “meta-representational”

information:

“DR #2, and DR #1 havesame external referent”

External anchor

Alternative Naming: NN"This is a mouse.“"This is an animal.“

#2

cond:

:= an animalis small …

info: same as #1

#1

cond:


info: same as #2


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The developmental claim

Around 4 years (3 – 5 years) children attain the necessary metarepresentational ability to represent identity: info Younger than 4 tend to fail altertive naming Older than 4 tend to pass alternative naming

Prediction: Same age trend for understanding identity

statements


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2 Important Points

The Anchoring Info constitutes “meta-cognitive” / “meta-representational”

information: “DR #2, and DR #1 have same external referent”

It provides an explicit encoding of identity The Anchoring Conditions

provide a sort of implicit understanding of identity as it anchors the two DRs to the same external entity.


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Important distinctions

Types of information: Defining (identifying) label Attributive information

Referents Discourse referent DR External referent ER

#1


cond: is a mouse,on this display, …

DR

ER


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Understanding Identity

A prediction tested


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This is the nurse.

This jewel belongs to Susi’s mother.

Susi’s mother is the nurse.

Prediction: Problems with identity statements

1 a nurse

2

a jewelbelongs to 3

3

Susi’s momowns 2

info: same as 1

Give back the jewel!

?


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Identity story (Waidmann): Results

0

20

40

60

80

100

young n = 13 older n = 15

FB ID

Percent

correct

r = .77 ** rp= .48** rp= .24

KABC Age

False Belief

Identity condition

0 1 2

0 8 0 0

1 5 0 0

2 3 0 12


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This is the nurse.

This dog belongs to the nurse

This collar belongsto the dog

Control: no problems with inferences

2 a dogbelongs to 1

Give back the collar! give 3 to 1 (the nurse)

3

a collarbelongs to 2

1

a nurse

Reasoning: If 3 belongs to 22 belongs to 1

then 3 belongs to 1


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0

20

40

60

80

Number children

Understand Erratic Sys-wrong

Kind of Response

Best Estimate of Percent Children who Understood

IC

ID

FB

Results: Bibiane Rendl

3;3n=11

0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

2,0

Mea

n c

orr

ect

nu

mb

er o

f te

st q

ues

tio

ns

Age group

123IC

ID

FB

3;8n=14

4;1n=15

4;5n=14

Inference control

Identity task

False belief task


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Instructive Pitfalls

Uncovered by using file cards


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This is the nurse.

This jewel belongs

to Susi’s mother.

Susi’s mother

is the nurse.

1 a nurse

2

a jewelbelongs to 3

3

Susi’s momowns 2

is a nurse

Give back the jewel!

?

Pitfalls uncovered by file cards: Attributive “is”

Attributive interpretation

Susi’s mom Nurse


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Avoiding attributive interpretations of identity statements

1

a nurselost 2

2

a jewelbelongs to 1

The nurse lost her jewel.

Susi’s sister is the nurse.

3

Susi’s sister

is a nurse

info: same as 1

A man finds the jewel. Who should he give it to— ?

Here are Susi and her sister. 4

Susi

?


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Summary and Outlook


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Summary: theoretical analysis

Discourse Coherence intentional objects as referents (discourse referents)

Discourse about reality Internal (intentional/discourse) vs. external referents

Implicit identity: DRs anchored to same ER Explicit identity: representing that DRs share same ER (a

case of metarepresentation). Standard means of internal referring: labels

Labels enable use of Perspectival simplification

(“big” vs. “big for a <label>”) Default assumptions (birds fly, penguins don’t)


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Summary: development

Metarepresentation develops around 4 years Children below 4 years fail metarepresentational

tasks: Alternative naming Identity statements Many others: false belief, visual perspective, …

File-card analysis provides Processing account of task difficulty


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Future agenda

Can we fit the following into the developmental picture? Piaget’s class inclusion task: “More boys or

children?” Piaget’s seriation tasks: identity of the middle term Doherty’s Rejection Task (extension of alternative

naming) How do Discourse Referents relate to Mental

Models?


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References Discourse ReferentsPerner, J., Rendl, B., & Garnham, A. (in press). "Objects of desire, thought, and

reality: Problems of anchoring discourse referents in development." Mind & Language, Vol, pp-pp.

Perner, J., & Brandl, J. (2005). File change semantics for preschoolers: alternative naming and belief understanding. Interaction Studies, 6(3), 483-501. 501.

Alternative Naming and False Belief:Perner, J., Brandl, J., & Garnham, A. (2003). What is a perspective problem?

Developmental issues in understanding belief and dual identity. Facta Philosophica, 5, 355-378.

Perner, J., Stummer, S., Sprung, M. & Doherty, M. J. (2002). Theory of mind finds its Piagetian Perspective: Why alternative naming comes with understanding belief. Cognitive Development, 17, 1451–1472.

Perner, J. (2000). RUM, PUM, and the perspectival relativity of sortals. In J. Astington (Ed.). Minds in the making: Essays in honour of David R. Olson (212-232). Oxford: Blackwell.

Doherty, M. J. & Perner, J. (1998). Metalinguistic awareness and theory of mind: just two words for the same thing? Cognitive Development, 13, 279-305.

Card SortingKloo, D. & Perner, J. (2005). Disentangling Dimensions in the Dimensional

Change Card Sorting task. Developmental Science, 8, 44-56.


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