In the TEDxEmory video titled “Inside the Mind of a Baby,” Dr. Stella Lourenco delves into the fascinating world of infant cognition. She challenges the traditional view of babies as naive and unknowing by showcasing their impressive cognitive capacities through studies on their looking behaviors. By analyzing how babies react to looming objects and categorize novel objects based on shape skeletons, Dr. Lourenco demonstrates that babies form complex mental representations from a very early age. Furthermore, she explores how babies infer dominance relationships within social groups based on limited data, highlighting their ability to make predictions about social interactions. Through these studies, Dr. Lourenco argues that understanding the early cognitive abilities of babies is essential for comprehending human nature as a whole. Ultimately, this video offers a glimpse into the intricate workings of a baby’s mind and sheds light on the vast cognitive potential that exists from the very beginning of life.
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Author Video Description
Get “Inside the Mind of a Baby” with Dr. Stella Lourenco, a developmental psychologist who researches how babies make sense of the world. She explains how clever behavioral methods have been leveraged to study the mental capacities of young children who may not yet have language but nevertheless reason about objects, space, and social relationships. Stella F. Lourenco is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Emory University and serves as the Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Lourenco has published extensively on visual perception, cognition, and development. She has received awards from the John Merck Foundation and American Psychological Association. Recognized as an expert in cognitive development, her research informs theories about knowledge’s origins and early development. Her studies on how young children recognize objects, estimate quantities and infer dominance in others have contributed to our understanding of young children’s physical and social worlds. With her students, Dr. Lourenco’s mission is to promote scientific rigor in developmental psychology and help parents and caregivers better appreciate the mental capacities of their young children. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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Video “Get “Inside the Mind of a Baby” | Stella Lourenco | TEDxEmory” was uploaded on 05/10/2024 to Youtube Channel TEDx Talks