---
abstract: 'Determining whether or not an entity is capable of acting intentionally is a fundamental cognitive skill that emerges in the first year of infancy, and the inability to act is a key aspect distinguishing dead from living things. Though young children’s understanding of death is generally thought to be poor, an understanding of death as the permanent cessation of agency might develop early in childhood. This study tested the cessation-of-agency hypothesis cross-culturally, by examining the differences between children’s judgments about sleeping and dead animals. The results showed that children understand that death entails the permanent cessation of the ability to act by age 4 in two different cultures. This is consistent with a view that those distinctions that are most crucial for adaptive decision-making are the ones that develop earliest.'
altloc:
  - http://www-abc.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/users/barrett/intentionalaction.pdf
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: 2001
conference: 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society
confloc: Edinburgh
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
  - family: Barrett
    given: H. Clark
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
  - family: Behne
    given: Tanya
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 2001
date_type: published
datestamp: 2001-08-07
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/17/30
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name: []
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 1730
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/1730/3/intentionalaction.pdf
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: inpress
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: 'evolutionary psychology, cognitive development, agency, death'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:46
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: ~
pubdom: FALSE
publication: ~
publisher: ~
refereed: FALSE
referencetext: |
  Barrett, H.C. (1999). Human cognitive adaptations to predators and prey. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara. UMI Microform number 9986870.
  Barrett, H.C., Cosmides, L., and Tooby, J. (in prep). Children’s understanding of predator-prey interactions and death.
  Gergely, G., Nádasdy, Z., Csibra, G., & Biró, S. (1995). Taking the intentional stance at 12 months of age. Cognition, 56, 165-193
  Leslie, A. M. (1994). ToMM, ToBy, and agency: Core architecture and domain specificity. In L. A. Hirschfeld & S. A. Gelman (Eds.), Mapping the mind: Domain specificity in cognition and culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  Slaughter, V., Jaakkola, R., & Carey, S. (1999). Constructing a coherent theory: Children's biological understanding of life and death. In M. Siegal & C. Peterson (Eds.), Children's understanding of biology and health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 12
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:39:56
subjects:
  - dev-psy
  - evol-psy
succeeds: ~
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: 'Understanding death as the cessation of intentional action: A cross-cultural developmental study'
type: confposter
userid: 1711
volume: ~
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