If you wanted to design a robot that could learn as well as it possibly could, you might end up with something… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Like most parents, I think, my children have been the source of some of my most intense joys and despairs, my deepest… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Our babies are like penguins; penguin babies can't exist unless more than one person is taking care of them. They just can't… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Developmental scientists like me explore the basic science of learning by designing controlled experiments. — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Babies and young children are like the research and development division of the human species, and we grown-ups are production and marketing, — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
We have lots of evidence that putting investments in early childhood education, even evidence from very hard-nosed economists, is one of the… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
A theory not only explains the world we see, it lets us imagine other worlds, and, even more significantly, lets us act… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
If you just casually look at a baby, it doesn't look like there's very much going on there, but they know more… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Something like reading depends a lot on just having people around you who talk to you and read you books, more than… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
As adults, when we attend to something in the world we are vividly conscious of that particular thing, and we shut out… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
One of the things I say is, 'You want to know what it's like to be a baby? It's like being in… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Philosophers and psychologists have long puzzled over the question of how we know as much as we do despite our limited experiences. One way… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Adults often assume that most learning is the result of teaching and that exploratory, spontaneous learning is unusual. But actually, spontaneous learning is more… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Adults tend to think they have much free will. Kids younger than six are less sure. They may be more realistic! — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
From an evolutionary perspective children are, literally, designed to learn. Childhood is a special period of protected immaturity. It gives the young breathing time… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
There is a tension between our desire to get our kids to turn out a particular way versus letting them develop to be their… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
“Instead, it may be that experience itself has changed our brains so that we perceive and interpret the world in a certain way. Once… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Caring for children has always been one of the deepest and most satisfying things that a human being does, and yet it is hard… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Imaginary friends are one of the weirder forms of pretend play in childhood. But the research shows that imaginary friends actually help children understand… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
“Like their parents, the Korean children used more verbs than the English-speaking kids, while the English-speaking kids used more nouns. But in addition, the… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
“We decided to become development psychologists and study children because there aren't any Martians. These brilliant beings with the little bodies and big heads… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Each new generation of children grows up in the new environment its parents have created, and each generation of brains becomes wired in a… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
