Preparedness to learn about the world: Evidence from infant research

Abstract

Infants’ learning about the world is determined by a complex interplay of biological predispositions and everyday experiences. As will be demonstrated in this chapter, evolution may have prepared us to perceive objects and events in a pre-specified way. We seem to be able to categorize objects, or to reason about physical and social events from early on. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that we come equipped with mechanisms allowing us to identify instructional interactions and to learn about the value of objects simply by observing the emotional responses of interactive partners towards these targets. As will be argued, this mechanism plays a key role in explaining why certain stimuli (e.g., spiders) induce fear in children and adults who never had any bad experience with these stimuli. It is not the nature of the object, nor the emotional response of an interactive partner in an instructional situation, but rather the combination of both that might explain the transmission of emotional attitudes towards these objects. In more general terms, we claim that infants’ learning about the world is modulated by social interactive experiences, thus allowing for the cultural transmission of object knowledge that has deep roots in phylogeny.