Karen Wynn

Athlete, Concerned citizen, Educator/Teacher, Foodie, Parent, Scientist, World traveler

I'm a scientist interested in the fundamental architecture of the human mind - how we have evolved to make sense of the world and interpret incoming experience. I study babies - ideal examples of the human mind as it exists prior to the influences of language, education, experience and cultural learning. I've studied infants for over 20 years, and the more I learn about and from them, the more fascinating they become. I'm currently studying how we are built to navigate the social world. A baby comes out into the world and now is utterly dependent on other social beings for its every need. How does it evaluate other humans, determine whom is likely to be helpful, whom is less liekly to be so? How does a baby, of 3 or 6 or 10 months of age, decide whom to befriend? What strategies do babies have at their disposal to influence caregivers to invest in them, and other adults to care for them (or at very least, not to eat them)? I have also studied other fundamental aspects of human cognition, including babies' early grasp of arithmetic, naive physics, and ability to distinguish between intentional agents and inanimate objects. Currently: Professor of Psychology, Yale University. PhD: in Cognitive Science, from MIT in 1990. BA: in Psychology, McGill University, 1985. Born in Texas, grew up in Saskatchewan Live now in New Haven, Connecticut

The unsung intelligences of various creatures, large and small

Dressage, Infant Development, psychology - cognition, psychology - developmental, psychology - evolutionary