Prof. Gustaf Gredebäck | Infant’s actions broaden their mind

Guest Lecture

  • Date: Feb 12, 2019
  • Time: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Prof. Gustaf Gredebäck
  • Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
  • Location: MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
  • Room: Wilhelm Wundt Room (A400)
  • Host: Department of Neurology
Findings from three separate cognitive domains are presented that together illustrate the different ways in which infant’s actions broaden their developing mind. (1) Action prediction develops through co-opting. A well-developed motor system allows infant’s to use own motor plans to calculate the goal of other people’s actions. In other words, we use our own knowledge about our bodies and actions to make sense of other people. (2) The foundations of mathematics develop through play. Highly proficient manual motor abilities allow infants to actively interact and learn about the world. Reaching and grasping provide opportunities for learning about forms, weights, sizes, and other action-related properties that enhance spatial cognition and strengthen the foundations of the number sense (the approximate number system). (3) Executive functions develop from motor control via interactive specialization. A successful interaction with the environment, through reaching and locomotion, require prediction, selection and inhibition. I argue that a common process dedicated to structuring and supporting action planing separate into separate processes supporting action control and long term planing. Together these three processes create a foundation for an embodied cognitive development that allows infants to learn about the world.
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