Name: The surprisingly logical minds of babies
Uploaded: 2015-06-02T14:58:09Z
Duration: 20 min 9 s
Description: How do babies learn so much from so little so quickly? In a fun, experiment-filled talk, cognitive scientist Laura Schulz shows how our young ones make decisions with a surprisingly strong sense of logic, well before they can talk.

*Life on the Mississippi*

Here I say, "You cannot randomly draw three blue balls in a row out of a box of mostly yellow balls." Of course you *could* technically pull out three blue balls in a row randomly but it's very unlikely.

Infants consider both the sample and the sampling process in inductive generalization

16-month-olds rationally infer causes of failed actions

Structural and molecular interrogation of intact biological systems

How do babies learn so much from so little so quickly? In a fun, experiment-filled talk, cognitive scientist Laura Schulz shows how our young ones make decisions with a surprisingly strong sense of logic, well before they can talk.

The surprisingly logical minds of babies

Even before they can talk, babies draw surprisingly accurate conclusions from just a handful of experiences. A 15-month-old can tell whether evidence is random or cherry-picked, changing their expectations based on subtle cues. Experiments reveal that infants generalize, reason about causes, and adapt their actions with an intuitive logic that rivals scientific thinking. This remarkable ability underpins not only early learning but the very foundation of human culture and creativity.