[ programme | outline | short biography ]
JEAN-NICOD LECTURES 2009
Elizabeth S. SPELKE
Short biographyElizabeth S. Spelke is The Marshall L. Berkman Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. Her laboratory focuses on the sources of uniquely human cognitive capacities, including the capacity for formal mathematics, the capacity for constructing and using symbolic representations such as maps, the capacity for developing comprehensive taxonomies of objects, and the capacity for reasoning about other humans and their social groups. Spelke studies these capacities by investigating their origins and growth in human infants and children, by considering human cognition in relation to the capacities of nonhuman primates, and by comparing the capacities of humans from diverse cultures. Current projects investigate: (1) how infants and children recognize objects, extrapolate object motions, and group objects into functional categories such as foods and tools; (2) how infants and children recognize human agents, reason about their goal-directed actions and mental states, and use other people as sources of information about objects; (3) how infants and children single out potential social partners for social interaction, sharing and cooperation, (4) how infants and children develop knowledge of natural number and arithmetic; and (5) how infants and children represent space and reason about geometry.
Short bibliography
2008. Olson, K. R., & Spelke, E. S. Foundations of cooperation in young children. Cognition, 108, 222-231.
2005. Shusterman, A., & Spelke, E. S. Language and the development of spatial reasoning. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (Eds.), The innate mind: Structure and contents, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 89-106.
2005. Xu, F., Spelke, E. S., & Goddard, S.. Number sense in human infants. Developmental Science, 8(1), 88-101.
2001. Spelke, E. S., & Hespos, S. J.. Continuity, competence, and the object concept. In E. Dupoux (Ed.), Language, brain, and cognitive development: Essays in honor of Jacques Mehler (pp. 325-340). Cambridge, MA: Bradford/MIT Press.
1996. Carey, S., & Spelke, E. S.. Science and core knowledge. Philosophy of Science, 63(4), 515-533.
1996. Hermer, L., & Spelke, E. S. Modularity and development: The case of spatial reorientation. Cognition, 61, 195-232.
1994. Carey, S., & Spelke, E. S. Domain-specific knowledge and conceptual change. In L. Hirschfeld & S. Gelman (Eds.), Mapping the mind: Domain specificity in cognition and culture, pp. 169-200. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
1994. Hermer, L., & Spelke, E. S. A geometric process for spatial reorientation in young children. Nature, 370, 57-59.
1994. Spelke, E. S. Initial knowledge: Six suggestions. Cognition, 50, 431-445. (Reprinted in J. Mehler and S. Franck (Eds.) Cognition on Cognition, pp. 433-448. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.)
1993. Spelke, E. S., & Van de Walle, G. Perceiving and reasoning about objects: Insights from infants. In N. Eilan, R. McCarthy, & W. Brewer (Eds.), Spatial representation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
1990. Spelke, E. S. Principles of object perception. Cognitive Science, 14, 29-56.
1990. Spelke, E. S. Origins of visual knowledge. In D. Osherson et al. (Eds.) An invitation to cognitive science, Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Reprinted in A. I. Goldman (Ed.) Readings in philosophy and cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.)
1988. Spelke, E. S. The origins of physical knowledge. In L. Weiskrantz (Ed.), Thought without language. Oxford, UK: Oxford Press.
1986. Spelke, E. S., & Kestenbaum, R. Les origines du concept d'objet. Psychologie Française, 31, 67-72.
Further information:
Sophie Bilardello
Institut Jean-Nicod
Ecole Normale Supérieure
Pavillon Jardin
29, rue d'Ulm
75005 Paris