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How Babies Think

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How Babies Think osq216Gpnk3p.indd 4 3/9/16 5:37 PM RAISE GREAT Thirty years ago most psychologists, KIDS philosophers and psychiatrists thought that babies and young children were ir- rational, egocentric and amoral. They believed children were locked in the con- crete here and now—unable to under- Even the stand cause and effect, imagine the ex - periences of other people, or appreciate youngest the difference between reality and fanta- sy. People still often think of children as children know, defective adults. experience and But in the past three decades scien- tists have discovered that even the young- learn far more est children know more than we would ever have thought possible. Moreover, than scientists studies suggest that children learn about the world in much the same way that sci- Photographs by ever thought entists do—by conducting experiments, Timothy analyzing statistics, and forming intuitive Archibald possible theories of the physical, biological and psychological realms. Since about 2000, researchers have started to understand the underlying computational, evolutionary and neurological mechanisms that under- pin these remarkable early abilities. These revolutionary ndings not only change our ideas about babies, they give us a fresh perspective on human nature itself. PHYSICS FOR BABIES Why were we so wrong about babies for so long? If you look cursorily at children who are four years old and younger (the age range I will discuss in this article), you might indeed conclude that not much is going on. Babies, after all, cannot talk. And even preschoolers are not good at re- porting what they think. Ask your aver- age three-year-old an open-ended ques- tion, and you are likely to get a beautiful but incomprehensible stream-of-con- sciousness monologue. Earlier research- ers, such as the pioneering Swiss psychol- ogist Jean Piaget, concluded that chil- dren’s thought itself was irrational and illogical, egocentric and “precausal”— with no concept of cause and effect. By The new science that began in the late Alison Gopnik 1970s depends on techniques that look at what babies and young children do in- stead of just what they say. Babies look longer at novel or unexpected events than MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM 5 osq216Gpnk3p.indd 5 3/9/16 5:38 PM H O W B A B I E S THINK at more predictable ones, and experi- lieve that animals and plants have an “es- can explain, for instance, if someone is menters can use this behavior to gure out sence”—an invisible core that stays the acting oddly because he or she believes what babies expect to happen. The stron- same even if outside appearances change. something that is not true. gest results, however, come from studies For babies and young children, the By the end of the 20th century exper- that observe actions as well: Which ob- most important knowledge of all is iments had thus charted impressively ab- jects do babies reach for or crawl to? knowledge of other people. Andrew N. stract and sophisticated knowledge in How do babies and young children imi- Meltzoff of the University of Washing- babies and the equally impressive growth tate the actions of people around them? ton showed that newborns already un- of that knowledge as children get older. Although very young children have derstand that people are special and will Some scientists have argued that babies a hard time telling us what they think, imitate their facial expressions. must be born knowing much of what we can use language in more subtle ways In 1996 Betty Repacholi (now at the adults know about how objects and peo- to tease out what they know. For exam- University of Washington) and I found ple behave. Undoubtedly, newborns are ple, Henry Wellman of the University of that 18-month-olds can understand that far from being blank slates, but the Michigan has analyzed recordings of I might want one thing, whereas you changes in children’s knowledge also children’s spontaneous conversations want another. An experimenter showed suggest that they are learning about the for clues to their thinking. We can give 14- and 18-month-olds a bowl of raw world from their experiences. children very focused questions—for broccoli and a bowl of gold sh crackers One of the greatest mysteries of psy- instance, asking them to choose between and then tasted some of each, making chology and philosophy is how human just two alternatives rather than asking either a disgusted face or a happy face. beings learn about the world from a con- an open-ended question. In the mid-1980s and through the 1990s, scientists using these techniques discovered that babies already know a Babies look longer at novel or great deal about the world around them. unexpected events than at more That knowledge goes well beyond con- crete, here-and-now sensations. Re- predictable ones, and experimenters searchers such as Renee Baillargeon of can use this behavior to fi gure the University of Illinois and Elizabeth S. Spelke of Harvard University found that out what babies expect to happen. infants understand fundamental physi- cal relations such as movement trajecto- RAISE GREAT KIDS ries, gravity and containment. They look longer at a toy car appearing to pass Then she put her hand out and asked, fusing mess of sensory data. Over the through a solid wall than at events that “Could you give me some?” The past decade researchers have begun to t basic principles of everyday physics. 18-month-olds gave her broccoli when understand much more about how babies By the time they are three or four, she acted as if she liked it, even though and young children can learn so much so children have elementary ideas about they would not choose it for themselves. quickly and accurately. In particular, we biology and a first understanding of (The 14-month-olds always gave her have discovered that babies and young growth, inheritance and illness. This crackers.) So even at this very young age, children have an extraordinary ability to early biological understanding reveals children are not completely egocentric— learn from statistical patterns. that children go beyond super cial per- they can take the perspective of another ceptual appearances when they reason person, at least in a simple way. By age THE STATISTICS OF BLICKETS about objects. Susan A. Gelman, also at four, their understanding of everyday In 1996 Jenny R. Saffran, Richard N. Michigan, found that young children be- psychology is even more re ned. They Aslin and Elissa L. Newport, all then at the University of Rochester, rst demon- strated this ability in studies of the sound FAST FACTS patterns of language. They played se- BABY BRAINS quences of syllables with statistical regu- Babies’ and young children’s cognitive abilities far surpass those that psychologists long larities to some eight-month-old babies. attributed to them. They can, for instance, imagine another person’s experiences and grasp For example, “ro” might follow “bi” only cause and effect. one third of the time, whereas “da” might Children learn about the world much as scientists do—in effect, conducting experiments, analyzing statistics and forming theories to account for their observations. always follow “bi.” Then they played the The long helplessness of babies may be an evolutionary trade-off, a necessary consequence babies new strings of sounds that either of having brains wired for prodigious feats of learning and creativity. followed these patterns or broke them. Ba- 6 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND SPECIAL EDITION SUMMER 2016 osq216Gpnk3p.indd 6 3/9/16 5:39 PM bies listened longer to the statistically un- Statistician at Work Babies are skillful statistical analysts. Experiments usual strings. More recent studies show showed that eight-month-olds notice if an improbable number of red Ping-Pong that babies can detect statistical patterns balls are taken out of a collection that is mostly white. Variations of the experi- of musical tones and visual scenes, as well ments (such as swapping the role of red and white) control against alternative explanations (such as having a greater interest in red objects). Twenty-month-olds as more abstract grammatical patterns. tested with green and yellow toys inferred that a person taking an unusually large Babies can even understand the rela- number of the rare color would prefer to be given a toy of that color. Thus, babies tion between a statistical sample and a and young children learn about the world like scientists—by detecting statistical population. In a 2008 study my Universi- patterns and drawing conclusions from them. ty of California, Berkeley, colleague Fei Xu showed eight-month-old babies a box full of mixed-up Ping-Pong balls: say, these children could use probability to 80 percent white and 20 percent red. The discover brand-new and surprising facts experimenter would then take out ve about the world. balls, seemingly at random. The babies In another experiment Laura Schulz, were more surprised (that is, they looked now at the Massachusetts Institute of longer and more intently at the scene) Technology, and I showed four-year-olds when Xu pulled four red balls and one a toy with a switch and two gears, one white one out of the box—an improbable blue and one yellow, on top. The gears outcome—than when she pulled out four turn when you ip the switch. This simple white balls and one red one. toy can work in many ways. Perhaps the Detecting statistical patterns is just the switch makes both gears turn at once, or rst step in scienti c discovery. Even more perhaps the switch turns the yellow gear, impressively, children (like scientists) use which turns the blue one, and so on.
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