EUROCORES-CNCC_ IP2: Metacognition of Perspective Differences: Identity & Theory of Mind in Child Development and Brain Imaging

Metacognition, i.e. thinking about thinking, covers the traditional realm of introspection; it refers to all kinds ofpredictive or retrodictive evaluation directed at one`s own mental states in planning or performing an action. New experimental paradigms have recently shown that some metacognitive capacities (those allowing probabilistic predictions concerning a future ability to perform a task) are not uniquely human, but may be found in monkeys, which implies that neither theory of mind, nor linguistic capacity, are preconditions for developing at least some forms of metacognition. Some doubts however have been voiced that these competences observed in other species might actually result from associative learning rather than from actual metacognitive judgments. Our CRP has three goals. 1) to examine critically the existence and nature of metacognitive abilities in non-human primates (rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees). New tasks will be devised to be uniquely consistent with metacognition. 2) to develop comparative knowledge of metacognitive processes, by exploring how similar these capacities are in non-human animals, human children and adults. One of the preconditions of such a comparison is to understand the specific contribution of linguistic responses, which in turn requires to better understand the implicit and explicit components of the metacognitive capacities. Adapted behavioral paradigms and brain response analysis will be used to distinguish them. We will also examine whether and how metacognition benefits from the mastery of mental concepts, using both behavioral evidence, brain imagery and conceptual analysis. 3) A third goal of our CRP is to develop a philosophical analysis of metacognition, in its formal structure, in ist representational format, and in its relations with conscious self-knowledge, based in part of the empirical findings within our CRP. Aims and objectives of the Individual project contribution to the CRP: (i) Empirical evidence for development of implicit and explicit aspects of metacognition crosscutting traditional domain boundaries (understanding identity and theory of mind). (ii) Empirical confirmation of developmental relationships of metcognitive capacities across different domains in overlapping brain regions assessed by fMRI. (iii) Deepening of the theoretical analysis of - metacognitive capacities by contrasting spontaneous one trial responses in children with learned responses in animals and with psychophysical tasks in adults - the implicit-explicit distinction by confronting our approach to the philosophical analysis (iv) Explore alternative explanations of our developmental connections in terms of belief revision theories