Michael Tomasello
E413444
Michael Tomasello is an American developmental and comparative psychologist known for his influential research on child language acquisition, social cognition, and the evolution of human cooperation.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Michael Tomasello canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4094660 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Michael Tomasello Context triple: [Universal Grammar, criticizedBy, Michael Tomasello]
-
A.
Michael Tronick
Michael Tronick is an American film editor known for his work on numerous major Hollywood productions across several decades.
-
B.
John Tooby
John Tooby is an American anthropologist and one of the founders of evolutionary psychology, known for his influential work on the evolutionary basis of the human mind and behavior.
-
C.
Andrea diSessa
Andrea diSessa is an American educational researcher and cognitive scientist known for his work on physics education, computational literacy, and the design of learning environments.
-
D.
Jerome H. Barkow
Jerome H. Barkow is an evolutionary anthropologist and psychologist known for his work on evolutionary psychology and human nature, including co-editing the influential volume "The Adapted Mind."
-
E.
Frans de Waal
Frans de Waal was a renowned Dutch primatologist and ethologist known for his pioneering research on animal cognition, empathy, and the evolutionary roots of human morality.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Michael Tomasello Target entity description: Michael Tomasello is an American developmental and comparative psychologist known for his influential research on child language acquisition, social cognition, and the evolution of human cooperation.
-
A.
Michael Tronick
Michael Tronick is an American film editor known for his work on numerous major Hollywood productions across several decades.
-
B.
John Tooby
John Tooby is an American anthropologist and one of the founders of evolutionary psychology, known for his influential work on the evolutionary basis of the human mind and behavior.
-
C.
Andrea diSessa
Andrea diSessa is an American educational researcher and cognitive scientist known for his work on physics education, computational literacy, and the design of learning environments.
-
D.
Jerome H. Barkow
Jerome H. Barkow is an evolutionary anthropologist and psychologist known for his work on evolutionary psychology and human nature, including co-editing the influential volume "The Adapted Mind."
-
E.
Frans de Waal
Frans de Waal was a renowned Dutch primatologist and ethologist known for his pioneering research on animal cognition, empathy, and the evolutionary roots of human morality.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American academic
ⓘ
comparative psychologist ⓘ developmental psychologist ⓘ human ⓘ psychologist ⓘ |
| academicDegree | PhD in experimental psychology ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award
ⓘ
surface form:
APA Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award
Humboldt Research Award ⓘ Jean Nicod Prize ⓘ Wilhelm Wundt Medal ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateOfBirth | 1950-01-18 ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Duke University
ⓘ
University of Georgia ⓘ |
| employer |
Duke University
ⓘ
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology ⓘ University of Leipzig NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| familyName | Tomasello ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
cognitive science
ⓘ
comparative psychology ⓘ developmental psychology ⓘ evolutionary anthropology ⓘ psycholinguistics ⓘ |
| givenName | Michael ⓘ |
| knownFor |
research on child language acquisition
ⓘ
research on shared intentionality ⓘ research on social cognition ⓘ research on the evolution of human cooperation ⓘ usage-based theory of language acquisition ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| memberOf |
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
ⓘ
German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina ⓘ |
| name | Michael Tomasello self-link ⓘ |
| notableConcept |
shared intentionality
ⓘ
usage-based model of language ⓘ |
| notableWork |
A Natural History of Human Morality
ⓘ
A Natural History of Human Thinking ⓘ Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition ⓘ Origins of Human Communication ⓘ The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition ⓘ Why We Cooperate ⓘ |
| placeOfBirth | Bartow, Florida, United States ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
James F. Bonk Distinguished Professor at Duke University
ⓘ
co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology ⓘ director of the Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology ⓘ |
| researchInterest |
cooperative behavior
ⓘ
cultural learning ⓘ joint attention ⓘ primate cognition ⓘ theory of mind ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Michael Tomasello Description of subject: Michael Tomasello is an American developmental and comparative psychologist known for his influential research on child language acquisition, social cognition, and the evolution of human cooperation.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.