Unit 5:
Implicit Knowledge
It was once thought that babies are born knowing essentially nothing of the world
-It is neither fair nor accurate to say that
Even very young infants have intuitive beliefs that allow them to think flexibly about the world
Infants seem endowed with a small number of separable systems of core knowledge that allow them to get a head start on understanding the features of the world
To know what infants, know, in a carefully controlled and crafted circumstance, use their visual preferences and the things that surprise them
-If infants show a preference for on stimulus over another, then they must be able to tell the difference All living organisms detect novelty. If something appears or happens that is sufficiently different
from something, we are familiar with or acclimated to we alert, orient and act surprised.
-If used carefully, this fact can help us understand what someone knows, especially when
that someone can’t talk
Very young infants understand that object persist overtime even when they are not being viewed. Piaget underestimated this
-Understand objects are solid and at least cohere together
Infants as young as 3 ½ months are simultaneously using five or more principles to think about the objects around them and interrelating these principles to make reliable correct predictions
Very early in life, infants know things like screens and balls are solid, rigid and do not change shape ordinarily solid objects cannot pass through one another even when they are out of sight,
objects stay put without intervention
Intuitive physics: Infants understand that objects should move on a continuous path
-Not jump from place to place without occupying the intervening space. This is part of being an object. -Infants have some understanding of gravity and moment of inertia
-Have insight into casual effects, agency and the distinction between animate/inanimate objects
-Possess some insight into abstract concepts such as number, adding and subtracting
Old conceptualizations of getting smarter have been replaced by the understanding that the child as active in this process and is an engineer to his or her development Because they cannot explain their thought processes to us, their knowledge is implicit rather than explicit Implicit cognition works outside of awareness and may be difficult to describe in words
Explicit knowledge is knowledge you are aware of and can articulate The ore knowledge framework takes the view that infants come equipped with a collection of special purpose though mechanisms, each shaped by evolution to perform a particular intellectual function Core knowledge has evolved to give infants a beginning sense of their physical and social world,
help them adapt, and serve as the basis of more sophisticated growth 5.2 Symbols
Mental representation is the defining characteristic of all thought after piaget’s sensorimotor period
Mental representation Is the representation of objects ideas images actions events concepts and so on in the head. It frees children from having to act overtly it is fast flexible and less error prone and provides mobility of thought Symbols involve using things such as icons pictures numbers letters and symbols to stand for communicate other things ideas images concepts events relations etc Vocabulary growth over the first three years is astonishing. Philosophers have argued that without constraints such word learning would be impossible
Perceptual constraints are the first kind of constraints on word meanings and include biases towards Certain interpretations of the word that arise from the way our perceptual system naturally carves up the world into distinct objects and events Conceptual constraints use concept knowledge to attach meaning to words. Conceptual constraints make some kinds of categories or relationships seem more natural
Pragmatic constraints give clues to what a word means based on infants knowledge of the goals
and beliefs of speakers As children grow and their ability to assign meaning to symbols their ability to think about the defining features of something and not just its characteristic features becomes important to avoid mistakes in labeling things
Implicit Knowledge
It was once thought that babies are born knowing essentially nothing of the world
-It is neither fair nor accurate to say that
Even very young infants have intuitive beliefs that allow them to think flexibly about the world
Infants seem endowed with a small number of separable systems of core knowledge that allow them to get a head start on understanding the features of the world
To know what infants, know, in a carefully controlled and crafted circumstance, use their visual preferences and the things that surprise them
-If infants show a preference for on stimulus over another, then they must be able to tell the difference All living organisms detect novelty. If something appears or happens that is sufficiently different
from something, we are familiar with or acclimated to we alert, orient and act surprised.
-If used carefully, this fact can help us understand what someone knows, especially when
that someone can’t talk
Very young infants understand that object persist overtime even when they are not being viewed. Piaget underestimated this
-Understand objects are solid and at least cohere together
Infants as young as 3 ½ months are simultaneously using five or more principles to think about the objects around them and interrelating these principles to make reliable correct predictions
Very early in life, infants know things like screens and balls are solid, rigid and do not change shape ordinarily solid objects cannot pass through one another even when they are out of sight,
objects stay put without intervention
Intuitive physics: Infants understand that objects should move on a continuous path
-Not jump from place to place without occupying the intervening space. This is part of being an object. -Infants have some understanding of gravity and moment of inertia
-Have insight into casual effects, agency and the distinction between animate/inanimate objects
-Possess some insight into abstract concepts such as number, adding and subtracting
Old conceptualizations of getting smarter have been replaced by the understanding that the child as active in this process and is an engineer to his or her development Because they cannot explain their thought processes to us, their knowledge is implicit rather than explicit Implicit cognition works outside of awareness and may be difficult to describe in words
Explicit knowledge is knowledge you are aware of and can articulate The ore knowledge framework takes the view that infants come equipped with a collection of special purpose though mechanisms, each shaped by evolution to perform a particular intellectual function Core knowledge has evolved to give infants a beginning sense of their physical and social world,
help them adapt, and serve as the basis of more sophisticated growth 5.2 Symbols
Mental representation is the defining characteristic of all thought after piaget’s sensorimotor period
Mental representation Is the representation of objects ideas images actions events concepts and so on in the head. It frees children from having to act overtly it is fast flexible and less error prone and provides mobility of thought Symbols involve using things such as icons pictures numbers letters and symbols to stand for communicate other things ideas images concepts events relations etc Vocabulary growth over the first three years is astonishing. Philosophers have argued that without constraints such word learning would be impossible
Perceptual constraints are the first kind of constraints on word meanings and include biases towards Certain interpretations of the word that arise from the way our perceptual system naturally carves up the world into distinct objects and events Conceptual constraints use concept knowledge to attach meaning to words. Conceptual constraints make some kinds of categories or relationships seem more natural
Pragmatic constraints give clues to what a word means based on infants knowledge of the goals
and beliefs of speakers As children grow and their ability to assign meaning to symbols their ability to think about the defining features of something and not just its characteristic features becomes important to avoid mistakes in labeling things
