The Scientist in the Crib

by Gopnik, Alison; Meltzoff, Andrew N.; Kuhl, Patricia K., Ph.D.

• ISBN13: 9780688159887
• ISBN10: 0688159885
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-07
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

This book combines two worlds -- children and science -- in an entirely unique way that yields exciting discoveries about both. The authors show that by the time children are three, they've solved problems that stumped Socrates with an agility computers still can't match. "The Scientist in the Crib explains just how, and how much, babies and young children know and learn, and how much parents naturally teach them. In fact, "The Scientist in the Crib argues that evolution designed us to both teach and learn. Nurture is our nature, and the drive to learn is our most important instinct.

The new science of children also reveals insights about our adult capacities, helping to solve some ancient questions: How do we know there really is a world out there? How do we know that other people have minds like ours? It turns out that we find solutions to these problems when we are very small. But these astonishing capabilities don't disappear in later life, as the authors show in their engaging discussion of humans' potential for learning. In fact, they argue

Author Biography

Alison Gopnik, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and a leading cognitive scientist Andrew N. Meltzoff, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at the University of Washington Patricia K. Kuhl, Ph.D. is a professor of speech and hearing at the University of Washington

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	vii
Ancient Questions and a Young Science	1	(22)
The Ancient Questions	4	(2)
Baby 0.0	6	(4)
The Other Socratic Method	10	(1)
The Great Chain of Knowing	11	(3)
Piaget and Vygotsky	14	(6)
The New View: The Computational Baby	20	(3)
What Children Learn About People	23	(37)
What Newborns Know	25	(7)
The Really Eternal Triangle	32	(3)
Peace and Conflict Studies	35	(5)
Changing Your Point of View	40	(2)
The Conversational Attic	42	(2)
Learning About ``About''	44	(3)
The Three-Year-Old Opera: Love and Deception	47	(4)
Knowing You Didn't Know: Education and Memory	51	(1)
How Do They Do It?	52	(8)
Mind-Blindness	53	(2)
Becoming a Psychologist	55	(2)
When Little Brother Is Watching	57	(3)
What Children Learn About Things	60	(32)
What Newborns Know	64	(6)
The Irresistible Allure of Stripes	64	(1)
The Importance of Movement	65	(2)
Seeing the World Through 3-D Glasses	67	(3)
The Tree in the Quad and the Keys in the Washcloth	70	(3)
Making Things Happen	73	(6)
Kinds of Things	79	(4)
How Do They Do It?	83	(9)
World-Blindness	84	(1)
The Explanatory Drive	85	(3)
Grown-ups as Teachers	88	(4)
What Children Learn About Language	92	(41)
The Sound Code	94	(3)
Making Meanings	97	(2)
The Grammar We Don't Learn in School	99	(3)
What Newborns Know	102	(8)
Taking Care of the Sounds: Becoming a Language-Specific Listener	106	(4)
The Tower of Babble	110	(2)
The First Words	112	(5)
Putting It Together	117	(3)
How Do They Do It?	120	(13)
Word-Blindness: Dyslexia and Dysphasia	120	(2)
Learning Sounds	122	(3)
Learning How to Mean	125	(3)
``Motherese''	128	(5)
What Scientists Have Learned About Children's Minds	133	(41)
Evolution's Programs	134	(5)
The Star Trek Archaeologists	139	(4)
Foundations	143	(4)
Learning	147	(17)
The Developmental View: Sailing in Ulysses' Boat	149	(4)
Big Babies	153	(2)
The Scientist as Child: The Theory Theory	155	(7)
Explanation as Orgasm	162	(2)
Other People	164	(10)
Nurture as Nature	165	(5)
The Klingons and the Vulcans	170	(2)
Sailing Together	172	(2)
What Scientists Have Learned About Children's Brains	174	(24)
The Adult Brain	175	(5)
How Brains Get Built	180	(3)
Wiring the Brain: Talk to Me	183	(3)
Synaptic Pruning: When a Loss Is a Gain	186	(3)
Are There Critical Periods?	189	(5)
The Social Brain	194	(1)
The Brain in the Boat	195	(3)
Trailing Clouds of Glory	198	(15)
What Is to Be Done?	198	(8)
The Clouds	206	(7)
Notes	213	(14)
References	227	(38)
Index	265