structural:scholar_edition, information:extraction
Shared Intentionality theory

A fundamentally different approach to understanding the perception of objects relies upon the essential role of Shared intentionality. Cognitive psychologist professor Michael Tomasello hypothesized that social bonds between children and caregivers would gradually increase through the essential motive force of shared intentionality beginning from birth. The notion of shared intentionality, introduced by Michael Tomasello, was developed by later researchers, who tended to explain this collaborative interaction from different perspectives, e.g., psychophysiology, and neurobiology. The Shared intentionality approach considers perception occurrence at an earlier stage of organisms' development than other theories, even before the emergence of Intentionality. Because many theories build their knowledge about perception based on its main features of the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information to represent the holistic picture of the environment, Intentionality is the central issue in perception development. Nowadays, only one hypothesis attempts to explain Shared intentionality in all its integral complexity from the level of interpersonal dynamics to interaction at the neuronal level. Introduced by Latvian professor Igor Val Danilov, the hypothesis of neurobiological processes occurring during Shared intentionality highlights that, at the beginning of cognition, very young organisms cannot distinguish relevant sensory stimuli independently. Because the environment is the cacophony of stimuli (electromagnetic waves, chemical interactions, and pressure fluctuations), their sensation is too limited by the noise to solve the cue problem. The relevant stimulus cannot overcome the noise magnitude if it passes through the senses. Therefore, Intentionality is a difficult problem for them since it needs the representation of the environment already categorized into objects (see also binding problem). The perception of objects is also problematic since it cannot appear without Intentionality. From the perspective of this hypothesis, Shared intentionality is collaborative interactions in which participants share the essential sensory stimulus of the actual cognitive problem. This social bond enables ecological training of the young immature organism, starting at the reflexes stage of development, for processing the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in developing perception. From this account perception emerges due to Shared intentionality in the embryonic stage of development, i.e., even before birth.