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News Release 12-182
Babies Are Born Scientists
New research methods reveal that babies and young children learn by rationally testing hypotheses, analyzing statistics and doing experiments much as scientists do
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Encouraging play, presenting anomalies and asking for explanations prompts scientific thinking more effectively than direct instruction.
Credit: Thinkstock
Alison Gopnik, professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, spoke with NSF about her research on young children's early learning.
Credit: National Science Foundation
In experiments at the University of California, Berkeley, researchers studied the interactions of young children with their surroundings.
Credit: UC Berkeley
A young child shows potential as a future scientist. Alison Gopnik's TED Talk included video of an experiment done by Cristine LeGare at the University of Texas at Austin.
Credit: TED, available under the Creative Commons license "Attribution - NonCommercial - NonDerivative"
Laura Schulz's studies show that children's play involves a kind of intuitive experimentation where they examine things and events to discover cause and effect underlying them.
Credit: copyright AAAS 2012
The researchers' work is described in the September 28, 2012 issue of the journal Science.
Credit: Copyright AAAS 2012
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