Please join us for a lecture by Distinguished University Professor Susan A. Gelman, followed by a reception.

Lecture Abstract:
A hallmark of human cognition is the capacity to look beyond outward appearances to consider ideas that are non-obvious or abstract. We see this from commonsense construals of experience (with ideas regarding germs, ownership, or fairness) to some of the most sophisticated concepts of our species (microscopic structure, shape of the earth, formal logic). Where do such ideas come from, and how do they develop? Professor Gelman will review evidence that, contrary to prevailing assumptions, children's early thought is not wholly grounded in the tangible "here-and-now". To the contrary, young children readily consider hidden, internal, abstract entities in numerous domains of thought. Gelman will discuss examples from categorization, language, and children's understanding of everyday experience. These findings have implications for the minds of children, the social nature of cognition, and the foundations of human thought.