The Cognitive Structure of Baseball

No Thumbnail Available
Date
2011-11-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation
Abstract
Eleven-year-old children have a pretty good idea of how baseball works. Yet, as Ray Jackendoff will show, the concepts involved in baseball are remarkably complex and subtle. So the question is: What cognitive resources do children bring to the task of learning baseball, such that they manage to understand it so readily? Professor Jackendoff will examine seven aspects of the understanding of baseball, in each case looking for its place in the larger ecology of human cognition. These aspects include: cooperation and competition; rules of the game and strategies; balls, strikes, runs, and outs; taking roles (such as pitcher and umpire) within the frame of the game; the logic of groups, including teams; how humans make up new systems such as games; and why humans like games, both as players and spectators.
Description
Keywords
Citation
DOI
Link(s) to data and video for this item
Click on the PURL link below in the "External Files" section to play this video. The audio-only mp3 file is also available below in the "Files" section.
Rights
Type
Presentation