{"product_id":"born-knowing-isbn-9780262045933","title":"Born Knowing","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn expert on the brain argues that the mind is not a blank slate and that much early behavior is biologically predisposed rather than learned.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy do newborns show a preference for a face (or something that resembles a face) over a nonface-like object? Why do baby chicks prefer a moving object to an inanimate one? Neither baby human nor baby chick has had time to learn to like faces or movement. In \u003ci\u003eBorn Knowing\u003c\/i\u003e, neuroscientist Giorgio Vallortigara argues that the mind is not a blank slate. Early behavior is biologically predisposed rather than learned, and this instinctive or innate behavior, Vallortigara says, is key to understanding the origins of knowledge. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on research carried out in his own laboratory over several decades, Vallortigara explores what the imprinting process in young chicks, paralleled by the cognitive feats of human newborns, reveals about minds at the onset of life. He explains that a preference for faces or representations of something face-like and animate objects--predispositions he calls \"life detectors\"--streamlines learning, allowing minds to avoid a confusing multiplicity of objects in the environment, and he considers the possibility that autism spectrum disorders might be linked to a deficit in the preference for the animate. He also demonstrates that animals do not need language to think, and that addition and subtraction can be performed without numbers. The origin of knowledge, Vallortigara argues, is the wisdom that humans and animals possess as basic brain equipment, the product of natural history rather than individual development.Preface\u003cbr\u003e1 What do Chickens have to do with Science?\u003cbr\u003e2 Cambridge, Early 1980s\u003cbr\u003e3 Mothers are not Rolling Stones\u003cbr\u003e4 Baby Chicks and Baby Humans\u003cbr\u003e5 Self-Propelling is Living\u003cbr\u003e6 In the Right Way\u003cbr\u003e7 Upright and Upside Down--What Fun!\u003cbr\u003e8 Memories of Mother, Left and Right\u003cbr\u003e9 Innate Guides for Learning\u003cbr\u003e10 To Flee or Freeze\u003cbr\u003e11 Tufted Chickens \u003cbr\u003e12 A Taste for Moderate Exoticism\u003cbr\u003e13 Everything is not yet in Its Place\u003cbr\u003e14 Faces in the Clouds\u003cbr\u003e15 A Brain for Animacy\u003cbr\u003e16 Sensitive Periods\u003cbr\u003e17 Very Interesting, But What is it For?\u003cbr\u003e18 In Ovo\u003cbr\u003e19 The Sound of Neurons\u003cbr\u003e20 Illusion and Reality\u003cbr\u003e21 Completing Partly Occluded Objects\u003cbr\u003e22 Light and Shadow\u003cbr\u003e23 Taking Space\u003cbr\u003e24 What a Chick Would Do Toward Metaphysics\u003cbr\u003e25 Rules and Regularities\u003cbr\u003e26 Arithmetic? Arithmetic is for the Birds\u003cbr\u003e27 ...and Geometry Too\u003cbr\u003e28 The Mental Line of Numbers\u003cbr\u003e29 Closing Time\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex“This book presents fascinating findings and a creative synthesis at the frontier of the study of nature and nurture. It’s a reassuring sign that this ancient topic, when it breaks free of black-and-white thinking, can show exciting scientific progress.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eSteven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow the Mind Works\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cu\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Animals are born with the wisdom of ages engraved in their brains. Giorgio Vallortigara is one of the most creative scientists trying to pinpoint the preexisting knowledge that helps an organism learn what it needs to learn for a successful life.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eFrans de Waal, author of \u003ci\u003eAre We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What are the origins of knowledge? How is it that we can make sense of the buzzing, blooming confusion of the world around us? In this beautifully written book, Vallortigara, a behavioral biologist working with chicks and babies, describes clever behavioral experiments that unravel the evolved, cognitive, and emotional scaffolds that make the extraction of physical and social regularities possible. Written with compassion and humor, and adorned with delightful and informative illustrations, this book provides insights into the ways in which the mind gains knowledge of the world.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eEva Jablonka, Tel-Aviv University, coauthor of \u003ci\u003eThe Evolution of the Sensitive Soul\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eGiorgio Vallortigara is Professor of Neuroscience and Head of the Animal Brain and Cognition Laboratory at the Centre for Mind\/Brain Sciences of the University of Trento, Italy. He is the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eDivided Brains: The Biology and Behaviour of Brain Asymmetries\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300673048805,"sku":"NP9780262045933","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262045933.jpg?v=1767722964","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/born-knowing-isbn-9780262045933","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}