We are delighted to announce that Professor Alison Gopnik
<http://www.alisongopnik.com/>, Professor of psychology and affiliate professor of
philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley) will be giving a public lecture in
Cambridge, details below. For tickets see here
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/myevent?eid=33144894271>.
Thursday 18th May
17:00 - 18:30
Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College, Cambridge
Abstract:
In the past 15 years, we have discovered that even young children are adept at
inferring causal relationship. But are there differences in the ways that
younger children, older children and adults learn? And do socioeconomic status
and culture make a difference? I will present several studies showing a
surprising pattern. Not only can preschoolers learn abstract higher-order
principles from data, but younger learners are actually better at inferring
unusual or unlikely principles than older learners and adults. This pattern
also holds for children in Peru and in Headstart programs in Oakland,
California. I relate this pattern to computational ideas about search and
sampling, to evolutionary ideas about human life history, and to neuroscience
findings about the negative effects of frontal control on wide exploration. My
hypothesis is that our distinctively long, protected human childhood allows an
early period of broad hypothesis search, exploration and creativity, before the
demands of goal-directed action set in.
Bio:
Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of
California at Berkeley. She received her BA from McGill University and her PhD from Oxford University.
She is an internationally recognized leader in the study of childrenâs learning and development and
was the first to argue that childrenâs minds could help us understand deep philosophical questions.
She is a columnist for <http://www.alisongopnik.com/Alison_Gopnik_WSJcolumns.htm>The Wall Street
Journal <http://www.alisongopnik.com/Alison_Gopnik_WSJcolumns.htm>. She is the author of over 100
journal articles and several books including Words, Thoughts and Theories(coauthored with Andrew
Meltzoff; MIT Press, 1997), and the bestselling and critically acclaimed popular books, The Scientist
in the Crib <http://www.alisongopnik.com/TheScientistInTheCrib.htm> (coauthored with Andrew
Meltzoff and Patricia Kuhl; William Morrow, 1999), The Philosophical Baby
<http://www.alisongopnik.com/ThePhilosophicalBaby.htm>; What Childrenâs Minds Tell Us about
Love, Truth and the Meaning of Life (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2009), and âThe. She has also
written widely about cognitive science and psychology for Science, The Times Literary Supplement, The
New York Review of Books, The New York Times, New Scientist and Slate, among others. And she has
frequently appeared on TV and radio including âThe Charlie Rose Showâ and âThe Colbert Reportâ.
This event forms part of a series of lectures by the Leverhulme funded Centre for the
Future of Intelligence <http://lcfi.ac.uk/>.
Best wishes
Susan
______________________________________
Susan Gowans
Centre Administrator
Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence
Tel: +44 1223 766838
Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Website: http://www.lcfi.ac.uk <http://www.lcfi.ac.uk/>
This email (together with any files transmitted with it) is intended only for
the use of the individual(s) to whom it is addressed. It may contain
information which is confidential and/or legally privileged. If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender by return email (or
telephone) and delete the original message.
_____________________________________________________
To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list,
or change your membership options, please visit
the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents
List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive
Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email
attachments. See the list information page for further
details and suggested alternatives.
