I'm culturally Jewish but, like most scientists, an atheist: I don't believe there's a God or supernatural world. Buddhism offers guidance on… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
We're in a culture where everything is either consumption or production, so child care is either a very, very bad-paying form of… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Becoming an adult means leaving the world of your parents and starting to make your way toward the future that you will… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
I wanted to answer big questions about humanity, about how it is that we understand about the world, how we can know… — 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
Siblings are the guarantors that the private childhood world - so unlike the adult world that scientists are only just beginning to… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Scientists learn about the world in three ways: They analyze statistical patterns in the data, they do experiments, and they learn from… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Imagine if baseball were taught the way science is taught in most inner-city schools. Schoolchildren would get lectures about the history of… — Alison Gopnik Copy Share Image
Scientists and philosophers tend to treat knowledge, imagination and love as if they were all very separate parts of human nature. But… — 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
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
