The learning mechanisms children are born with are very much similar to the scientific method of investigation, a new study has shown. Infants prefer to learn by proposing and testing hypotheses, learning from statistics, setting up and carrying out experiments, and through observing others' actions.
This is precisely the main tenet of the scientific method of inquiry, and differs from that which many people (especially spiritual or religious individuals) use to understand the world around them. I will not insist on this topic further, since I believe this findings speaks volumes all by itself.
“The way we determine how they're learning is that we give them, say, a pattern of data, a pattern of probabilities or statistics about the world and then we see what they do. We found that like scientists, they tested hypotheses about the machines and determined which one was more likely,” experts say.
The work was carried out by Alison Gopnik, who is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California in Berkeley (UCB). The investigation was supported by the US
National Science Foundation (NSF).
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