Cormier, Christopher A.

Bering and colleagues (2004, 2005) reported that the expectation that conscious
mental states cease with the onset of death (discontinuity reasoning) emerges
developmentally, and discontinuity reasoning for some states (emotions, desire,
epistemic) remains lower than for others (psychobiological, perceptual). Cormier (2005)
reported very similar findings for the context of sleep and proposed a modular
explanation of these effects (“intentional persistence”) and suggested that intentional
persistence represents an evolved adaptation designed to maintain vigilance and
behavioral preparedness while in the presence of animals of ambiguous agency status
(e.g., death, sleep, hibernation, feigned death). The current study extended this line of
research to realistic animal characters. Although results revealed patterns of discontinuity
reasoning and intentional persistence that were consistent with those of previous studies,
the prediction that intentional persistence would be more pronounced for predators was not fulfilled. A newly proposed evolutionary product, “Cooptation,” was introduced to
further explain the results.

Bering and Bjorklund (2004) reported that (1) the knowledge that conscious mental states cease with the onset of death (discontinuity reasoning, "DR") emerges developmentally; and (2) DR for some states (emotions, desire, epistemic) is more difficult than others (psychobiological, perceptual). In the current study, preschool/kindergarteners, 2nd/3 rd graders, 5th/6th graders and adults viewed a puppet story in which an anthropomorphized juvenile mouse character was explicitly enriched with a variety of mental states prior to falling asleep; the results were highly similar to those of Bering and Bjorklund. Statistical comparison of these data with those of Bering and Bjorklund demonstrates that DR for emotions, desires and epistemic contents is equally difficult for both death and sleep, and suggests the influence of both simulation and implicit theoretical factors. An evolved adaptation designed to maintain vigilance in the presence of immobile agents, but that also likely underlies intuitive dualism (intentional persistence) is proposed.