Santa Fe Institute

Colloquium

May 07, 2013
12:30 PM
Noyce Conference Room

Alison Gopnik (University of California, Berkeley)

Abstract.  I argue for a theoretical link between the development of an extended period of immaturity in human evolution and the emergence of powerful and wide-ranging causal learning mechanisms, particularly the use of causal models and Bayesian learning.  In fact, young children may actually be more wide-ranging and effective causal learners than adults. I argue that, particularly in the course of play, children perform more "high-temperature" searches of hypothesis spaces than adults do.  In several empirical studies 4 year olds were better able to learn a low probability higher-order causal hypothesis from data than older children or adults were. In a second type of empirical study preschool children given new information about a causal system made very similar inferences both when they considered counterfactuals about the system and when they engaged in pretend play about it. Children's minds and brains appear to be especially well-adapted to deal with variability and novelty. Childhood, and childhood play in particular, may be evolutions way of performing simulated annealing — that is beginning with a wide high-temperature search of a problem-space  and gradually "cooling" to more narrowly defined searches.

Purpose: Research Collaboration

SFI Host: Geoffrey West

More Info

• * SFI community lectures are free, open, & accessible to the public.
• * Seminars & colloquia are geared for scientists but free & open to the interested public.
• * All other SFI events are by invitation only.
• * Note: We are unable to accommodate members of the public for SFI's limited lunch service; you're welcome to bring your own.