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

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.

About the Author :
Patricia K. Kuhl, PhD, holds the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and is codirector of the University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, director of the University of Washington's NSF Science of Learning Center, and professor of speech and hearing sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is internationally recognized for her research on early language and bilingual brain development, for pioneering brain measures on young children and studies that show how young children learn. She presented her work at two White House conferences (Clinton White House in 1997 and Bush White House in 2001). Dr. Kuhl is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Rodin Academy, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Acoustical Society of America, the American Psychological Society, and the Cognitive Science Society. Dr. Kuhl was awarded the Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America in 1997. She received the University of Washington's Faculty Lectureship Award in 1998. In 2005, she was awarded the Kenneth Craik Research Award from Cambridge University, and in 2007, the University of Minnesota's Outstanding Achievement Award. In Paris in 2008, Dr. Kuhl was awarded the Gold Medal of the Acoustical Society of America for her work on early learning and brain development. In November 2011 in Paris, Dr. Kuhl was awarded the IPSEN Foundation's Jean-Louis Signoret Neuropsychology Prize, and in 2013 she received the William James Lifetime Achievement award. In 2014, Dr. Kuhl was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Stockholm University, and in 2015 the George A. Miller Prize in Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr. Kuhl is coauthor of The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn. Alison Gopnik, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and a leading cognitive scientist. She is past president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and is the author of more than seventy papers on philosophy, psychology, and children's early learning. She has also written for the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. Mother of three, she lives with her family in Berkeley, California. Andrew N. Meltzoff, PhD, holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair and is codirector of the University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. A graduate of Harvard University, with a PhD from Oxford University, he is an internationally renowned expert on infant and child development. His discoveries about infant imitation have revolutionized our understanding of early cognition, personality, and brain development. His research on social-emotional development and children's understanding of other people has helped shape policy and practice. Dr. Meltzoff's twenty years of research on young children has had far-reaching implications for cognitive science, especially for ideas about memory and its development; for brain science, especially for ideas about common coding and shared neural circuits for perception and action; and for early education and parenting, particularly for ideas about the importance of role models, both adults and peers, in child development. Dr. Meltzoff is the recipient of a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health. In 2005, he was the recipient of an award for outstanding research from the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the Kenneth Craik Award in Psychology, Cambridge University, England. Dr. Meltzoff is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society. He has been inducted into the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and is the recipient of the James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award. Dr. Meltzoff has appeared on the PBS programs Scientific American Frontiers and NOVA, on ABC's World News Now, NBC's Today Show, the CBC Discovery series, and in numerous other media outlets. He is married to Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl, and they have one daughter. Wendy Tremont King, a classically trained narrator and stage actor, got her start in audiobook narration as a volunteer for the Lighthouse for the Blind. She is an accomplished puppeteer and puppetry director, as well as a member of the SAG Foundation BookPals program for children's literacy.