Laura Schulz: The surprisingly logical minds of babies
Laura Schulz: As sorprendentemente lóxicas mentes dos bebés
Developmental behavior studies spearheaded by Laura Schulz are changing our notions of how children learn. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
what I take to be
o que eu considero que é
of cognitive science
da ciencia cognitiva
fascinating about science.
returns of conjecture
masivas de conxecturas
investment in fact."
tan insignificante en feitos.”
of course, but he's right:
pero ten razón:
fascinating about science.
the existence of dinosuars.
a existencia dos dinosauros.
the composition of nebulae.
a composición das nebulosas.
of blood flowing through the brain,
fluíndo a través do cerebro,
of very young children,
de nenos moi pequenos,
the fundamental mechanisms
sobre os mecanismos fundamentais
of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT,
de Cerebro e Ciencias Cognitivas, no MIT,
trying to understand the mystery
intentando entender o misterio
a partir de tan pouco, e tan rápido.
from so little so quickly.
the fascinating thing about science
ten de fascinante
thing about children,
spin on Mark Twain,
ca Mark Twain,
to draw rich, abstract inferences
de extraer inferencias ricas e abstractas
from sparse, noisy data.
de datos dispersos e confusos.
just two examples today.
un problema de xeneralización,
of causal reasoning.
about work in my lab,
do que facemos no meu laboratorio,
and indebted to a field.
e en débeda con el.
and collaborators around the world.
colegas e colaboradores de todo o mundo.
of generalization.
co problema de xeneralización.
is the bread and butter of science.
de datos é o pan de cada día da ciencia.
mínima do electorado
of national elections.
das eleccións nacionais.
responds to treatment in a clinical trial,
responde a tratamento nun ensaio clínico,
ao mercado nacional.
is randomly drawn from the population.
se extrae aleatoriamente da poboación.
in some way --
entrevistamos só votantes urbanos,
for treatments for heart disease,
de tratamentos para doenzas cardíacas
to the broader population.
non ser xeneralizables a toda a poboación.
se a mostra se recolleu ou non ao chou,
is randomly sampled or not,
from small samples of data all the time.
a partir de pequenas mostras de datos.
and learn that they float,
e aprenden que flotan,
about ducks and balls
sobre os parrulos e as pelotas
to rubber ducks and balls
babies have to make about ducks and balls
que deben facer sobre parrulos e pelotas,
and cabbages and kings.
the tiny bit of evidence they see
se o pequeno anaco de proba que ven
of a larger population?
unha poboación maior?
of an experiment,
just two movies,
in innumerable ways.
de calquera outro de innumerábeis formas.
here stand in for groups of babies,
representan aquí a grupos de bebés,
in babies' behavior across conditions.
en cada suposto.
a baby doing maybe
un bebé facendo tal vez
expect a baby to do,
more magical than they already are.
os bebés máis máxicos do que xa son.
these two conditions,
that differs between these two movies
entre os dous vídeos
the babies are going to observe.
que os bebés van observar.
a box of blue and yellow balls,
de bólas azuis e amarelas,
now colleague at Stanford, Hyowon Gweon,
hoxe compañeira en Stanford, Hyowon Gweon,
in a row out of this box,
seguidas desta caixa,
she's going to squeeze them,
that's like a TED Talk.
iso é como un charla TED.
easy to pull three blue balls in a row
sacar tres bólas azuis seguidas
sobre todo bólas azuis.
from this population.
mostra aleatoria desta poboación.
and pull out things that squeak,
nunha caixa e sacar cousas que chían,
those yellow balls to squeak as well.
que as bólas amarelas chíen tamén.
have funny sticks on the end,
divertidos paus nun extremo,
with them if they wanted to.
outras cousas se se quere.
(Ball squeaks)
(Ball squeaks)
(Ball squeaks)
You can go ahead and play.
Veña, podes collela e xogar.
will generalize properties
xeneralicen propiedades
aprender imitándonos.
can learn from imitating us,
for a very long time.
dende hai moito tempo.
aos bebés exactamente a mesma cousa,
exactly the same thing,
because we have a secret compartment
porque temos un compartimento secreto
is the apparent population
foi a poboación aparente
three blue balls
aos bebés tres bólas azuis
of mostly yellow balls,
bólas amarelas,
three blue balls in a row
tres bólas azuis seguidas
bólas amarelas.
randomly sampled evidence.
was deliberately sampling the blue balls.
estivo amosando deliberadamente as azuis.
about the blue balls.
(Ball squeaks)
(A bóla chía)
(Ball squeaks)
(A bóla chía)
(Ball squeaks)
(A bóla chía)
You can go ahead and play.
Veña, podes xogar.
(Laughter)
two 15-month-old babies
bebés de 15 meses
of the sample they observed.
da mostra que observaron.
the percentage of babies
a porcentaxe de bebés
more likely to generalize the evidence
moito máis a xeneralizar a mostra
of the population
is clearly cherry-picked.
out of the mostly yellow box.
bólas amarelas.
in a row at random out of a yellow box,
3 bólas azuis seguidas dunha caixa amarela
just one blue ball.
a box at random
ao chou nunha caixa
maybe everything in the box squeaks.
tal vez todo o da caixa chíe.
much less evidence for squeaking,
moita menos probas para chíos,
accións que imitar
the condition you just saw,
ca no que vimos antes,
would squeeze more,
apertarían a bóla máis veces,
in this respect, like scientists,
neste sentido, como científicos,
is randomly sampled or not,
unha mostra representativa ou non,
expectations about the world:
expectativas sobre o mundo:
of causal reasoning.
de razoamento causal.
of confounded evidence
to you, but like most problems,
pero como a maior parte deles,
this toy go, and he can't.
o seu xoguete, e non pode.
wrong with the toy.
unha mínima porción de datos estatísticos
just a tiny bit of statistical data
sobre a outra,
can use that to make different decisions
para tomar decisións diferentes
the toy go and succeed.
funcione, e conségueo.
and fail both times,
e fracasar as dúas,
to try again and succeed,
outra vez e conseguilo,
to my graduate students
cos meus estudantes de posgrao
it provides a little bit of evidence
que proporciona algunha proba
it's with the person.
senón a persoa.
que o xoguete funcione,
he's going to have a choice.
vai ter unha elección.
e cambiar a persoa,
and change the person,
another toy at the end of that cloth,
no bordo desa tea,
and change the toy.
e cambiar o xoguete.
(Music)
(Música)
One, two, three, go!
Un, dous, tres. Xa!
(Music)
to put this one over here,
Si, vou poñer este por aquí,
babies love their mommies.
os bebés quérenlles ás súas mamás.
to their mommies
is what happens when we change
é que ocorre cando cambiamos
work and fail in exactly the same order,
funcionar e fallar xusto na mesma orde,
the distribution of evidence.
once and fail once, and so am I.
e fracasar outra, e eu tamén.
who tries this toy, the toy is broken.
quen proba este xoguete, está roto.
vai ter que tomar unha decisión.
así que pode cambiar a persoa,
so she can change the person,
at the end of the cloth.
(Music)
(Música)
One, two, three, go!
Un, dous, tres, xa!
(Music)
(Música)
to put this one over here,
the experimental results.
os resultados experimentais.
you'll see the distribution
baixo cada suposto,
of the choices children make
das eleccións que fan
mínima de datos estatísticos
of statistical data
fundamentally different strategies
fundamentalmente diferentes
two laboratory experiments
dous experimentos de laboratorio
that make similar points,
que chegan a conclusións similares,
to make rich inferences from sparse data
partindo de datos dispersos
cultural learning that we do.
cultural específica como especie.
from just a few examples.
a partir duns poucos exemplos.
from just a few examples.
a partir duns poucos exemplos.
in this case in American Sign Language.
neste caso en lingua de signos americana.
the field of brain and cognitive sciences,
(o do cerebro e as ciencias cognitivas)
tres grandes ideas.
to your attention.
the era of the brain.
staggering discoveries in neuroscience:
impresionantes en neurociencia:
regions of cortex,
funcionalmente especializadas,
and machine learning,
e da aprendizaxe automática,
to revolutionize our understanding
revolucionar a nosa comprensión
to epidemiology.
ata a epidemioloxía.
de comprensión do contexto
of scene understanding
about human cognition.
sobre a cognición humana.
to know so much about brains
saber tanto sobre os cerebros
buscamos atallos,
e de formas innumerables,
son noticias importantes,
about what it means to be human,
sobre qué significa ser humano,
I told you a very different story.
que hoxe tratei unha noticia moi distinta.
non sobre cerebros,
about the kinds of computations
sobre o tipo de computación
and the ability to learn
e estruturados e capacidade de aprender
the evidence of just a few examples.
coa proba de só uns poucos exemplos.
about how starting as very small children
sobre como dende meniños
to the greatest accomplishments
ata os máis grandes logros
from small amounts of data.
a partir de pequenas cantidades de datos
of altogether new ideas.
ideas totalmente novas.
research and discovery,
investigación e descubrimento,
art and literature and poetry and theater,
arte e literatura e poesía e teatro,
coidan doutros seres humanos:
os nosos enfermos.
to see technological innovations
imos ver innovacións tecnolóxicas
the computational power of a human child
que se aproxime sequera
learners and their development,
aprendices e no seu desenvolvemento,
most powerful and elegant forms
outras poderosísimas e elegantes formas
of a better future,
soñando cun mellor futuro,
I do actually have a question for you.
Quería facerche unha pregunta.
esta investigación é de tolos.
an experiment like that? (Laughter)
un experimento coma ese? (Risas)
that that can truly be happening,
que poida estar ocorrendo de verdade,
similar experiments; it checks out.
experimentos similares; está comprobado.
in our experiments,
nos nosos experimentos,
look like in real life, right?
it's talking to you,
non van de pelotas e parrulos,
things like balls and ducks,
which refer to disappearance,
que se refire á desaparición,
a accións involuntarias.
to unintentional actions.
que o que ensinei.
than anything I showed you.
pode falarche sobre case todo.
about almost anything.
the other key point you're making is,
o outro punto clave que destacas é
where there's all this talk
tivemos todo este debate
que son as nosas mentes,
and the whole theories behind that
e teorías enteiras detrás
story is how extraordinary,
é extraordinario,
that is underappreciated.
que está subestimada.
quotes in psychology
en psicoloxía
psychologist Solomon Asch,
of psychology is to remove
“o cometido fundamental da psicoloxía
o veo de autoevidencia das cousas”.
more decisions you make every day
que se toman a diario
and their properties.
e as súas propiedades.
You know them in the dark.
Recoñecémolos na escuridade.
Podemos falarlles.
are thinking. You can talk to them.
Coñecemos os números.
You know about numbers.
Entendemos o razoamento moral.
You know about moral reasoning.
por iso non nos decatamos,
so we don't see it,
and it's a remarkable
accomplishment.
que comparten
in the audience who have
technological power
de que nunca nas nosas vidas
that never in our lifetimes
o que un neno de tres anos pode facer,
a three-year-old child can do,
moito que aprender dos nosos cativos.
from our toddlers.
machine learning folks up here.
partidarios da aprendizaxe automática.
against babies or chimpanzees
contra os bebés ou os chimpancés
a difference in quantity,
dunha diferenza de cantidade,
sophisticated things,
algo bastante diferente,
something quite different,
hierarchical nature of human knowledge
e xerarquizada do coñecemento humano
un verdadeiro desafío.
food for thought. Thank you so much.
para reflexionar. Moitas grazas.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Laura Schulz - Cognitive scientistDevelopmental behavior studies spearheaded by Laura Schulz are changing our notions of how children learn.
Why you should listen
MIT Early Childhood Cognition Lab lead investigator Laura Schulz studies learning in early childhood. Her research bridges computational models of cognitive development and behavioral studies in order to understand the origins of inquiry and discovery.
Working in play labs, children’s museums, and a recently-launched citizen science website, Schultz is reshaping how we view young children’s perceptions of the world around them. Some of the surprising results of her research: before the age of four, children expect hidden causes when events happen probabilistically, use simple experiments to distinguish causal hypotheses, and trade off learning from instruction and exploration.
Laura Schulz | Speaker | TED.com