Beyond Words Ep. 26 | Agency, Joint Attention, and How Children Construct Language with Dr. Michael Tomasello
In this episode of Beyond Words, host Garrett Oyama speaks with Dr. Michael Tomasello, one of the world’s leading developmental psychologists, about how agency, cooperation, and shared intentionality shape human cognition and language.
Drawing from his recent book Agency and Cognitive Development, Dr. Tomasello describes how children move through different forms of agency—from pursuing simple goals, to imagining alternative possibilities, to reflecting on their own beliefs and decisions. They explore why a child’s goals fundamentally shape what they attend to and learn, and what this perspective might change about developmental science and speech-language intervention.
The conversation then turns to what Tomasello sees as a defining feature of human cognition: our ability to form a shared “we.” They discuss joint attention, collaboration, roles and perspectives, language as a cultural tool, and the surprising connection between collaborative activities and grammatical constructions. They also consider autism and shared intentionality, child-led intervention, the limitations of behaviorism and reinforcement-based approaches, and how collaborative activities might scaffold communication.
Finally, they discuss words as tools rather than static meanings, Vygotsky and cultural learning, artificial intelligence versus artificial agency, and why Tomasello believes the “mind as computer” metaphor has led cognitive science in the wrong direction.
Grab a copy of Agency and Cognitive Development - https://academic.oup.com/book/58002
Grab a copy of Constructing a Language - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674017641
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