Gopnik What Do Babies Think Summary

Alison Gopnik’s TED Talk lecture, What Do Babies Think, is an overview of the unexpectedly complex manner in which babies and toddlers process information in order to learn. By evolutionary design, babies and toddlers are made to learn. Research conducted by Gopnik shows that children as young as 18 months old have a far greater ability to analyze the actions of others and adjust his or her way of thinking in order to accommodate the needs as displayed by the other person, than researchers 30 years ago believed. Gopnik’s research also shows that when we believe children are playing, they are in reality learning by generating complex hypotheses, conducting experiments, drawing conclusions, and analyzing the results of their actions to form new hypotheses. One concept reflected in this lecture is that of social learning. The first experiment discussed in which the responses of children who were prompted for different foods in response to the actions of the experimenter were studied, shows that the children who offered the experimenter the desired food learned through social interaction that not all people like the same things. This is a profoundly complex aspect of human nature that was not thought possible by researchers thirty years ago. It was believed that these constructs of learning were not present until the Piaget’s concrete operations
Earlier in the brains prefrontal cortex formation, it has more plasticity, or the capacity to learn through experience. This is why as typical children age biologically they learn more through experience and stimulation. According to Gopnik’s research, children somewhat are overstimulated. This overstimulation is necessary for biological and cognitive development. The brains of infants and children are flooded with neurotransmitters that induce learning and plasticity. Therefore, when a child is actively playing and thinking they are stimulated and