Infancy and Human Nature
What Can We Learn from Infants
•	Universality
•	Early appearance
•	Maturation
•	Theories and knowledge 
•	Potentiality to learn 
Three Views of Infancy
•	Behaviorist
•	Piagetian
•	Scientist in the crib
Behaviorist Models
•	Physical skills and maturation
•	Learning crucial
•	Linear progress
Piagetian Models
•	Babies have cognitive skills
•	Different from adults
•	Progress in stages
Scientist
•	Babies born with 
•	Essential skills
•	Basic knowledge
•	Proclivities to learn
•	Babies have theories
•	And strong motivation to seek relevant information
•	Theories are revised with new information
How to Study Babies
•	Disinhibition and looking
•	Eye movements and looking
•	Reinforcement based learning and action
What Tricks Do Babies need
•	Social relationships and social learning
•	Language
•	Object recognition
Social Skills
•	Early preference for human faces
•	Imitation of facial expressions
•	Imitation of behaviors (12 mo)
•	Looking where other people point (12 mo)
•	Preferences
•	14 mo give mother what baby likes
•	18 mo give mother what she likes
•	Experimenting with conflict – terrible twos
Objects
•	Prefer to look at edges
•	Object constancy
•	Movement crucial 
•	Coordinating sounds and sights
•	Making things happen and causal understanding
•	Categories
Language
•	Sound learning
•	Word segmentation
•	Word curiosity
•	Early grammar
•	Motherese