title: Natural pedagogy.
abstract: We propose that human communication is specifically adapted to allow the transmission of generic knowledge between individuals. Such a communication system, which we call 'natural pedagogy', enables fast and efficient social learning of cognitively opaque cultural knowledge that would be hard to acquire relying on purely observational learning mechanisms alone. We argue that human infants are prepared to be at the receptive side of natural pedagogy (i) by being sensitive to ostensive signals that indicate that they are being addressed by communication, (ii) by developing referential expectations in ostensive contexts and (iii) by being biased to interpret ostensive-referential communication as conveying information that is kind-relevant and generalizable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy, Central European University, Nádor u. 9., H-1051 Budapest, Hungary. csibrag@ceu.hu
authors.forename: Gergely
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Csibra
authors.forename: György
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gergely
mesh_terms: D002657:Child Development; D003142:Communication; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012938:Social Perception; D013663:Teaching