When My Timetable Permitted, I Attended the Weekly Research Seminars at the Institute Of

Report

I held the S.T. Lee Fellowship at the School of Advanced Study from May 1st until May

31st. During my stay, I focused on the completion of two pieces of work, one a research paper documenting the emergence of various expressions of ignorance, both non-verbal and verbal, in young children [Harris, P.L., Bartz, D.T. & Rowe, M.L.

(2017). Young children communicate their ignorance and ask questions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 7884-7891] and the other a chapter reviewing recent findings on young children’s learning from others’ testimony. [Harris, P.L., Koenig, M. A., Corriveau, K. H., & Jaswal, V.K. (in press).

Cognitive foundations of learning from testimony. Annual Review of Psychology, 69].

When my timetable permitted, I attended the weekly research seminars at the

Institute of Philosophy. I also gave three talks at U.K universities outside of London, as detailed below:

1. Why do children doubt magic but believe in miracles? 1.00 pm, Friday, 5th May,

Psychology Department, Lincoln University.

2. Why do children doubt magic but believe in miracles? 2.00 pm, Friday 12th

May. Lecture theatre, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology,

Oxford.

3. Young children’s developing conception of knowledge and ignorance: Work in

progress. 11.00 am, Monday 15th May, Board Room, Philosophy Faculty,

Raised Faculty Building, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge. At the School, I participated in a workshop on: The Role of Ignorance: Using metacognitive attributions in epistemology and psychology held on Tuesday 23rd May

2017 which was co-organized by three members of the Institute of Philosophy

(Corine Besson, Ophelia Deroy, and Nicholas Shea). My own paper was entitled: “I don’t know”: Ignorance and question-asking as engines for cognitive development.

I attach details of the workshop program. This was an excellent opportunity for me to discuss my recent work with philosophers as well as psychologists.

Finally, I was invited to speak at a 2-day international conference organized by the

Swiss Center for Affective Sciences held at the Campus Biotech in Geneva, to mark

12 years of interdisciplinary research on emotion. I presented a paper entitled

Missing Persons on Thursday May 18th.

I am very grateful for the invitation from the School. It was an excellent opportunity for me to engage with both new and existing colleagues. I particularly enjoyed the stimulating, multi-disciplinary atmosphere at the Institute of Philosophy.

Paul L. Harris

Graduate School of Education, Harvard University

17th August, 2017