As adults, we are quite proficient in generating commitments, and in identifying, keeping track of, and responding appropriately to our own and others’ commitments. This proficiency is fundamentally important for uniquely human forms of sociality. By illuminating the cognitive processes underpinning commitments, we may therefore gain insight into the ways in which human cognition is unique, and into the ways in which it is shared with other species. In pursuing this aim, one valuable strategy is to investigate the emergence of an understanding of commitment in ontogeny, i.e. to isolate distinct components of this proficiency as they emerge, and to learn how they relate to each other, which are the most basic, etc. Our aim in this paper is to contribute to this project by articulating a theoretical framework to structure research on the emergence of an understanding of commitment in childhood.

中文翻译：

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承诺的发展起源

作为成年人，我们非常擅长做出承诺，以及识别、跟踪和适当回应我们自己和他人的承诺。这种熟练程度对于独特的人类社会形式至关重要。通过阐明支撑承诺的认知过程，我们可以因此深入了解人类认知的独特方式，以及与其他物种共享的方式。在追求这一目标的过程中，一个有价值的策略是研究个体发育中对承诺的理解的出现，即在这种能力的出现时分离出不同的组成部分，并了解它们如何相互关联，这是最基本的，等等.