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In Brief
- Babies’ and young children’s cognitive abilities far surpass those that psychologists long attributed to them. They can, for instance, imagine another person’s experiences and grasp cause and effect.
- Children learn about the world much as scientists do—in effect, conducting experiments, analyzing statistics and forming theories to account for their observations.
- The long helplessness of babies may be an evolutionary trade-off, a necessary consequence of having brains wired for prodigious feats of learning and creativity.
Thirty years ago most psychologists, philosophers and psychiatrists thought that babies and young children were irrational, egocentric and amoral. They believed children were locked in the concrete here and now—unable to understand cause and effect, imagine the experiences of other people, or appreciate the difference between reality and fantasy. People still often think of children as defective adults.
But in the past three decades scientists have discovered that even the youngest children know more than we would ever have thought possible. Moreover, studies suggest that children learn about the world in much the same way that scientists do—by conducting experiments, analyzing statistics, and forming intuitive theories of the physical, biological and psychological realms. Since about 2000, researchers have started to understand the underlying computational, evolutionary and neurological mechanisms that underpin these remarkable early abilities. These revolutionary findings not only change our ideas about babies, they give us a fresh perspective on human nature itself.
This article was originally published with the title How Babies Think.
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9 Comments
Add CommentProf Gopniks article might be revealing to those without children but as a mom and a scientist these traits are pretty obvious. Never have I thought of my children (n=4) as egocentric, irrational or illogical. They are empathetic, methodical and driven. Even as I write this my 9mth old is busy using the end of a curtain rod to try to break into my filing cabinet (which she knows opens) and when that doesn't work she inspects the gap at the edge of the drawer and compares that to her tool. Finally she decides the rod just won't fit in the gap and gives up (for now).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would further suggest babies are even cooperative and exchange information learned by their experimention - had one of my friends babies been here, no doubt both would have considered the filing cabinet problem. Even though the other baby would not know it could open she would have taken a turn trying to pry the cabinet open and probably looked for her own tool to try for herself.
What is most remarkable about this article is that psychologists have taken so long to come to the same conclusion that many moms already had devised by their own child-like intuitive scientific process. Moms know our children are sponges for information, we constantly try to fill their need for knowledge, only to be exhausted by their seemingly limitless capacity. Just drop into any moms support group and listen to them discuss the latest challenges and dicoveries. If you need ideas for experimental design call on some experienced moms - we'll ask our kids for you!
Scigirlmom,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are absolutely right! Trouble is that 30 years ago most psychologists were men and never had much to do with children, even their own. Their hypotheses carried a lot of baggage and their observations of actual children were minimal and in lab rather than normal conditions. In those days I sat through many a psychology lecture listening to what amounted to uninformed supposition asserted as fact most firmly by the middle aged male lecturer. Regrettably, at 20 I didn't have the guts to tell him what rubbish it was.
Children have the mind of a god, shaped by millions of year of evolution, which then degrades into an enculturated adult.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ Scigirlmom and @Great Aunt Gertie
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are people with and without children, scientist or not, that think, or thought, children are mostly one or the other.
@krohlerder
Supposing that is the case, where do you suppose or what do you think, causes this degradation of culture ? How could it evolve ?
Where do we lean to get back on a more efficient tack ?
Discussion.
Children have the mind of a child. Mostly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOpen, aware, deluged and awash with sensory information, experimental interpretations, trial and error records and un-mediated urges. While making or abandoning thousands of brand new nuronal connections (we could call them talents?) every millisecond.
Minds filled with sometimes complex, sometimes simple (perhaps we could call them revelatory?) new or repeated experiences. All leading to a constant cascade of potential approaches (perhaps we could call them ideas?) to understanding (rationalisations?), or actions (communications?) or postulations (theories?) about what can and does happen after events or sensations "strike" them.
No wonder they need to sleep so much!
Sound like science to me . . .
Or maybe art. . .
Perhaps there's a couple of "more efficient" tacks to work with?
i need more help from the scientist about how to built up self confidence, smarter to my little girl (4 years) who born in the conflict and single mom fighter.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismaybe the experience person has something to be discuss...tq
Hi
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is true that the 'experts' could learn a few things from Mums. When my eldest was a young baby, I was constantly being told, by 'experts', what he could and could not do. Finally most of them had to apologise to me, because he could do many things that surprised them.
Going back to my own babyhood, I have a good memory for some of those early days.
I remember lying in my pram and wanting to reach the 'handle' ~ which was quite a way away. Somehow I managed to reach up, grab it, and topple the pram, so that it was on top of me ~ with me on the floor. My Mum says that I was about 4 months old. I was certainly thinking.
I can also remember being in a cot in my parents' room and being told to go to sleep. I wasn't very old ~ less than a year perhaps ~ and could not understand why my parents should ask me to go to sleep when I was wide awake. I remember wanting them to wake up and talk to me.
So babies certainly can think.
It must be that, despite all those extraordinary cognitive abilities, babies lack memory.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat would explain why none of us reading this rememember ourselves using our extraordinary cognitive abilities when we were babies.
One of the most extraordinary women I ever knew was a Flat Head Indian gal who owned a Greek restaurant. She raised four children that she breast fed until age five even while she was cooking in her restaurant, which meant that sometimes orders took awhile to reach one's table.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLater in life I worked with one of those children who had gone on to become a college graduate and who reported that all of her siblings had college degrees as well. All were also remarkably healthy which is unusual for enrolled tribal members in general.
I suspect that a Meditrerranean diet and prolonged breast feeding can overcome huge cultural and environmental handicaps.