Our Quotes by Alison Gopnik

9 Our quotes by Alison Gopnik

Alison Gopnik’s nine concise remarks on "Our" showcase her curious, research‑driven style. This modest collection offers a quick peek at how she frames collective learning and development.

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One of the most distinctive evolutionary features of human beings is our unusually long, protected childhood.

Alison Gopnik

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Culture is our nature, and the ability to learn and change is our most important and fundamental instinct.

Alison Gopnik

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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

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Historically, absolute IQ scores have risen substantially as we've changed our environment so that more people go to school longer.

Alison Gopnik

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In most places and times in human history, babies have had not just one person but lots of people around who were…

Alison Gopnik

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The thing that is most important is having people who are involved and engaged with the kids and also are not stressed…

Alison Gopnik

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Many philosophers say it's impossible to explain our conscious experience in scientific, biological terms at all. But that's not exactly true. Scientists…

Alison Gopnik

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For better or worse, we live in possible worlds as much as actual ones. We are cursed by that characteristically human guilt…

Alison Gopnik

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I think universities are trying to figure out how we could use what we know about learning to change our education system,…

Alison Gopnik

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More by Alison Gopnik

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

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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

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Adults tend to think they have much free will. Kids younger than six are less sure. They may be more realistic!

Alison Gopnik

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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

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We don't wife our husbands and we don't child our parents.

Alison Gopnik

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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

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“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

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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

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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

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“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

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“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

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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

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I'm the oldest of six children and I had my own first baby when I was 23. So I've always been interested in babies,…

Alison Gopnik

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“‎Literature is the equivalent of the climate scientist’s computer simulations: set up some new starting conditions, run the whole complicated process and see what…

Alison Gopnik

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The brain knows the real secret of seduction, more effective than even music and martinis. Just keep whispering, 'Gee, you are really special' to…

Alison Gopnik

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