The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind

Written by Alison Gopnik, PhD, Andrew Meltzoff, PhD and Patricia K. Kuhl, PhD

Narrated by Wendy Tremont King

This exciting book by three pioneers in the field of cognitive science discusses important discoveries about how much babies and young children know and learn, and how much parents naturally teach them. It argues that evolution designed us both to teach and learn, and that the drive to learn is our most important instinct. It also reveals fascinating insights about our adult capacities and how even young children-as well as adults-use some of the same methods that allow scientists to learn so much about the world. Filled with surprise at every turn, this vivid, lucid, and often funny book gives us a new view of the inner life of children and the mysteries of the mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781977330864

Reviews for The Scientist in the Crib

[bezoar44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An alternate subtitle for this book could be: 'Our research on how children think, and our opinions about the rest of the world'. The book presents accessible and interesting descriptions of the authors' experiments, with conclusions about how infants' minds work. It is cleverly written, too, with helpful allusions to literature and pop culture. The analysis of how the results of the experiments fit into the rest of the world are less convincing, and overwritten -- all of chapter 5 could have been cut without no loss in the book's substance.On the frustrating side, the authors' core thesis -- that scientists are essentially doing what babies do: generating theories and then testing them, driven by a biological urge to explain the world around them -- isn't itself tested scientifically; it's just presented as an attractive idea. There's something particularly suspect when a trio of scientists discovers, much to their delight, that the beloved subjects of their careers are, in the ways that matter most to these investigators, just like them. It doesn't mean the theory is wrong, but it's odd that these authors -- clearly articulate and thoughtful, and dedicated to understanding how people think -- never consider the possibility that their thesis could simply be a case of projection. Overall, the book was worth checking out of the library and reading for the empirical information about how children think differently at different ages.

[grrleditor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this during the first year of my daughter's life and found it fascinating and insightful. Good science, written well.

[daedalus_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure if I'm giving this book four stars because it genuinely deserves it, or if the high rating is perhaps more emblematic of my disgust for a majority of the childhood development books I've come across. Regardless, four stars.Where many books seem long on theory and short on empiricism, these authors take great pains (and supply fine footnotes) to document the fruit of modern childhood development studies. My only gripe about the book is that I'd still like a more in depth recounting of current research. Fortunately, most of the authors' peer journal submissions can be found online.