Thinking Quotes 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

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

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

— Alison Gopnik

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

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

— Alison Gopnik

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

“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

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

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

“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

“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

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

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

“‎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

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