Séminaire - Lisa Feigenson : How do Infants Learn? The Role of Surprise, Curiosity, and Active Experimentation

Stanislas Dehaene


Collège de France - Année 2023-2024


Chaire de Psychologie Cognitive Expérimentale


Quel code neural pour les représentations mentales ?


Séminaire - Lisa Feigenson : How do Infants Learn? The Role of
Surprise, Curiosity, and Active Experimentation


Lisa Feigenson


Johns Hopkins University, New York


Comment les bébés apprennent-ils ? Le rôle de la surprise, de la
curiosité et de l'expérimentation active


Résumé


The origins of our minds are an enduring puzzle-- what parts of
what we know require learning, and what emerges in the absence of
specific experience? Questions about how nature and nurture
contribute to human knowledge have been productive in driving
contemporary research in psychology, linguistics, and
neuroscience. Yet, these questions also have been controversial,
with some arguing that it is no longer useful to consider
development in terms of nature and nurture. Here I revisit
classic ideas in this theme, and provide new evidence. First I
argue that people, including children and scientists, naturally
and intuitively think about human abilities in terms of
innateness versus learning. Moreover, we find that their thinking
exhibits strong empiricist biases. Characterizing these biases,
and their potential to distort scientific reasoning, is critical
if we are to come to understand the actual origins of knowledge.
Next, I present a case study for thinking about learning that
puts new emphasis on the role of prior knowledge. In a series of
experiments, we find that infants' acquisition of new information
(i.e., nurture) is guided and enhanced by prior knowledge that is
likely innate (i.e., nature). These experiments highlight that
integrating across the contributions of nature and nurture,
rather than ignoring this distinction, is central to
understanding phenomena of interest. I suggest that researchers
must continue to think about nature/nurture, with the recognition
that in so doing we also must characterize, understand, and
correct for our intuitive biases.