Jd. Coley, EMERGING DIFFERENTIATION OF FOLKBIOLOGY AND FOLKPSYCHOLOGY - ATTRIBUTIONS OF BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES TO LIVING THINGS, Child development, 66(6), 1995, pp. 1856-1874
Research suggests that for adults, ''folkpsychology'' and ''folkbiolog
y'' represent distinct conceptual domains for reasoning about living t
hings. However, it is not clear whether these domains are distinct for
children; past work suggests that the 2 systems are confused until ag
e 10, and that radical theory change accounts for eventual differentia
tion. To examine this claim, 16 subjects each at ages 6, 8, and adult
were shown pictures of predatory and domestic animals and asked whethe
r each animal displayed a variety of biological properties (e.g., has
blood) and psychological properties (e.g., can think, can feel angry).
Subjects at all ages showed clearly different attribution patterns fo
r biological versus psychological properties. This dissociation of att
ribution patterns provides evidence that by kindergarten, notions of f
olkpsychology and folkbiology are sufficiently differentiated to const
itute distinct and independent conceptual domains. This in turn sugges
ts that radical theory change regarding living things either occurs pr
ior to the beginning of formal education, or does not explain the deve
lopment of folkbiological knowledge.