What is going on in this baby's mind? If you'd asked people this 30 years ago, most people, including psychologists, would have said that this baby was irrational, illogical, egocentric -- that he couldn't take the perspective of another person or understand cause and effect. In the last 20 years, developmental science has completely overturned that picture. So in some ways, we think that this baby's thinking is like the thinking of the most brilliant scientists.
Cfare po ndodh ne mendjen e kesaj bebeje? Nese do t'i kishit pyetur njerezit per kete 30 vjet me pare, shumica e njerezve, duke perfshire psikologet, do te kishin thene qe ky femije ishte iracional, i palogjikshem, egocentrik -- se ai nuk mund te merrte perspektivat e nje personi tjeter ose te kuptonte shkakun dhe efektin. Ne 20 vitet e fundit, zhvillimi i shkences e ka permbysur perfundimisht ate imazh. Pra, ne nje fare menyre, ne mendojme qe mendimet e ketij femije jane si mendimet e shkenctareve me te shkelqyer.
Let me give you just one example of this. One thing that this baby could be thinking about, that could be going on in his mind, is trying to figure out what's going on in the mind of that other baby. After all, one of the things that's hardest for all of us to do is to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling. And maybe the hardest thing of all is to figure out that what other people think and feel isn't actually exactly like what we think and feel. Anyone who's followed politics can testify to how hard that is for some people to get. We wanted to know if babies and young children could understand this really profound thing about other people. Now the question is: How could we ask them? Babies, after all, can't talk, and if you ask a three year-old to tell you what he thinks, what you'll get is a beautiful stream of consciousness monologue about ponies and birthdays and things like that. So how do we actually ask them the question?
Me lejoni t'ju jap vetem nje shembull te kesaj. Nje gje qe ky femije mund te jete duke menduar, qe mund te jete duke i shkuar ne mendje, eshte qe po mundohet te zbuloje cfare po ndodh ne mendjen e femijes tjeter. Mbi te gjitha, nje nga gjerat me te veshtire per te bere, per te gjithe ne eshte te zbulojme se cfare po mendojne dhe ndjejne njerezit e tjere. Dhe ndoshta me e veshtira e te gjithave eshte te zbulosh se ajo qe njerezit e tjere mendojne & ndjejne nuk eshte e njejte me ate qe ne mendojme dhe ndjejme. Kushdo qe ka ndjekur politiken mund te deshmoje se sa e veshtire eshte per disa njerez per ta kuptuar. Ne donim te dinim nese bebet dhe femijet e vegjel mund te kuptojne kete gje vertet te thelle rreth njerezve te tjere. Tani pyetja eshte: Si mund ti pyesim ne ato? Bebet, pas te gjithave, nuk mund te flasin, dhe nese ju pyesni nje 3 vjecar per t'ju thene se cfare mendon, ajo cka ju do te merrni eshte nje lume i bukur monologu rreth vetedijes rreth kuajve te vegjel e ditelindjeve dhe gjerave te ngjashme me keto. Pra, si u bejme atyre pyetjen ne te vertete?
Well it turns out that the secret was broccoli. What we did -- Betty Rapacholi, who was one of my students, and I -- was actually to give the babies two bowls of food: one bowl of raw broccoli and one bowl of delicious goldfish crackers. Now all of the babies, even in Berkley, like the crackers and don't like the raw broccoli. (Laughter) But then what Betty did was to take a little taste of food from each bowl. And she would act as if she liked it or she didn't. So half the time, she acted as if she liked the crackers and didn't like the broccoli -- just like a baby and any other sane person. But half the time, what she would do is take a little bit of the broccoli and go, "Mmmmm, broccoli. I tasted the broccoli. Mmmmm." And then she would take a little bit of the crackers, and she'd go, "Eww, yuck, crackers. I tasted the crackers. Eww, yuck." So she'd act as if what she wanted was just the opposite of what the babies wanted. We did this with 15 and 18 month-old babies. And then she would simply put her hand out and say, "Can you give me some?"
E pra, del se sekreti ishte brokoli. Ajo qe beme -- une dhe Betty Rapacholi, nje prej studenteve te mia, -- ishte pikerisht ti jepje bebeve dy tasa me ushqime: nje tas me brokoli te gjalle dhe nje tas me biskota te shijshme ne forme peshku. Tani te gjithe femijet, edhe ne Berkley, pelqyen biskotat dhe nuk pelqyen brokolin e gjalle. (Te qeshura) Por, ajo qe beri Betty ishte qe provonte pak nga ushqimet ne secilin tas. Dhe ajo do te reagonte sikur do ti pelqente ose jo. Keshtu qe gjysmen e kohes, ajo reagoi sikur do te pelqente biskotat dhe nuk do te pelqente brokolin -- njelloj si bebet dhe cdo person tjeter normal. Por gjysmen e kohes, ajo cka do te bente ishte te merrte pak nga brokoli dhe te reagonte, "Mmmmmm, brokoli. Une e provova brokolin, Mmmmm." Dhe me pas ajo do te merrte pak nga biskotat, dhe do te reagonte, "Iiiii, e keqe, biskota. Une i provova biskotat, Iiiiii, e keqe." Pra, ajo do te reagonte sikur ajo qe donte ishte e kunderta e asaj qe donin bebet. Ne e realizuam kete me bebet 15 - 18 muajsh. Dhe me pas ajo do te zgjaste doren dhe do te thoshte, "A do te me japesh ca mua?"
So the question is: What would the baby give her, what they liked or what she liked? And the remarkable thing was that 18 month-old babies, just barely walking and talking, would give her the crackers if she liked the crackers, but they would give her the broccoli if she liked the broccoli. On the other hand, 15 month-olds would stare at her for a long time if she acted as if she liked the broccoli, like they couldn't figure this out. But then after they stared for a long time, they would just give her the crackers, what they thought everybody must like. So there are two really remarkable things about this. The first one is that these little 18 month-old babies have already discovered this really profound fact about human nature, that we don't always want the same thing. And what's more, they felt that they should actually do things to help other people get what they wanted.
Pra, pyetja eshte: Cfare do t'i jepte bebja asaj, ate qe ato pelqenin apo ate qe ajo pelqente? Dhe gjeja me e mrekullueshme ishte qe bebet 18 muajshe, qe akoma nuk ecnin dhe flisnin, do ti jepnin asaj biskotat nese ajo kishte qejf biskotat, dhe do ti jepnin asaj brokoli nese ajo kishte qejf brokolit. Nga ana tjeter, bebet 15 muajshe do t'a veshtronin per nje kohe te gjate ate nese ajo reagonte qe pelqente brokolit sikur nuk mund ta kuptonin. Por, pasi e kishin veshtruar per nje kohe te gjate, ato do ti jepnin asaj vetem biskotat, ajo qe ato mendonin qe cdokush do i pelqente. Keshtu qe jane dy gjera vertet te mrekullueshme rreth kesaj. E para eshte qe keto bebe 18 muajshe e kane zbuluar tashme kete fakt vertet te thelle rreth natyres njerezore, qe ne nuk duam gjithnje te njejtat gjera. Dhe per me teper, ato ndiheshin qe ato ne te vertete duhet te benin gjera per te ndihmuar qe njerezit e tjere te merrnin qe donin.
Even more remarkably though, the fact that 15 month-olds didn't do this suggests that these 18 month-olds had learned this deep, profound fact about human nature in the three months from when they were 15 months old. So children both know more and learn more than we ever would have thought. And this is just one of hundreds and hundreds of studies over the last 20 years that's actually demonstrated it.
Edhe per me teper, fakti qe 15 muajshet nuk e bene kete sugjeron qe keto bebe 18 muajshe kane mesuar kete fakt te veshtire, te thelle te natyres njerezore per 3 muaj qe kur ato ishin 15 muajsh. Keshtu qe femijet dine me shume dhe mesojne me shume nga ajo cka ne kemi menduar. Dhe kjo eshte vetem nje e qindra - qindra studimeve gjate 20 viteve te fundit qe eshte treguar me fakt.
The question you might ask though is: Why do children learn so much? And how is it possible for them to learn so much in such a short time? I mean, after all, if you look at babies superficially, they seem pretty useless. And actually in many ways, they're worse than useless, because we have to put so much time and energy into just keeping them alive. But if we turn to evolution for an answer to this puzzle of why we spend so much time taking care of useless babies, it turns out that there's actually an answer. If we look across many, many different species of animals, not just us primates, but also including other mammals, birds, even marsupials like kangaroos and wombats, it turns out that there's a relationship between how long a childhood a species has and how big their brains are compared to their bodies and how smart and flexible they are.
Pyetja qe mund te beni eshte: Pse femijet mesojne kaq shume? Dhe si eshte e mundur per ato te mesojne kaq shume ne nje kohe kaq te shkurter? Dua te them, pas te gjithave, nese i shihni bebet siperfaqesisht ato duken mjaft te padobishem. Dhe ne te vertete ne shume menyra, ato jane me se te padobishem sepse na duhet te japim shume kohe dhe energji vetem per ti mbajtur ato gjalle. Por nese kthehemi tek evolucioni per nje pergjigje te ketij misteri qe pse shpenzojme kaq shume kohe duke u kujdesur per bebe te padobishme, na rezulton qe ne te vertete ka nje pergjigje. Nese shohim neper shume, shume specie te ndryshme kafshesh. jo vetem tek ne primatet, por gjithashtu duke perfshire gjitaret e tjere, zogjte, madje edhe marsupialet si kanguret dhe urithet, rezulton qe ka nje lidhje midis kohezgjatjes se femijerise qe ka nje specie dhe sa shume mendjet e tyre krahasohen me trupat dhe sa te zgjuar dhe fleksibel ato jane.
And sort of the posterbirds for this idea are the birds up there. On one side is a New Caledonian crow. And crows and other corvidae, ravens, rooks and so forth, are incredibly smart birds. They're as smart as chimpanzees in some respects. And this is a bird on the cover of science who's learned how to use a tool to get food. On the other hand, we have our friend the domestic chicken. And chickens and ducks and geese and turkeys are basically as dumb as dumps. So they're very, very good at pecking for grain, and they're not much good at doing anything else. Well it turns out that the babies, the New Caledonian crow babies, are fledglings. They depend on their moms to drop worms in their little open mouths for as long as two years, which is a really long time in the life of a bird. Whereas the chickens are actually mature within a couple of months. So childhood is the reason why the crows end up on the cover of Science and the chickens end up in the soup pot.
Dhe nje lloj tabloje per kete ide jane zogjte ne qiell. Ne nje ane eshte nje sorre ne Kaledonine e Re. Dhe sorrat dhe korvidianet e tjere, korbat, dhe keshtu me rradhe, jane zogj teper te zgjuar. Ato jane ne disa aspekte aq te zgjuar sa shimpazete. Dhe ky eshte nje zog ne kopertinen e shkences qe ka mesuar sesi te perdore mjetin per te marre ushqimin. Nga ana tjeter, ne kemi miken tone, pulen shtepiake. Dhe pulat, dhe rosat, dhe patat dhe gjeli i detit jane ne thelb shume budallenj. Ata jane shume, shume te mire per te cukitur grurin, por nuk jane te zote te bejne asgje tjeter. E pra kjo rezulton qe bebet, bebet e sorrave te Caledonise se Re, jane zogj te vegjel. Ato varen nga mamate e tyre per t'u hedhur krimba ne gojezat e tyre te hapura per aq gjate sa dy vjet, qe eshte nje kohe shume e gjate ne jeten e nje zogu. Kurse pulat ne te vertete maturohen brenda disa muajsh. Keshtu qe femijeria eshte arsyeja pse sorrat perfundojne ne kopertinen e Shkences dhe pulat perfundojne ne tenxheren e supes.
There's something about that long childhood that seems to be connected to knowledge and learning. Well what kind of explanation could we have for this? Well some animals, like the chicken, seem to be beautifully suited to doing just one thing very well. So they seem to be beautifully suited to pecking grain in one environment. Other creatures, like the crows, aren't very good at doing anything in particular, but they're extremely good at learning about laws of different environments.
Ka dicka per kete femijeri te gjate qe duket qe te jete e lidhur me njohuri dhe te mesuar. Epo, cfare lloj shpjegimi mund te kemi ne per kete? Disa kafshe, si pulat, duket sikur jane mire te pershtatura per te bere shume mire vetem nje gje. Keshtu qe ato duken sikur jane mire te pershtatura per te cukitur grure ne nje mjedis. Krijesat e tjera, si sorrat, nuk jane shume te mire per te bere asgje ne vecanti, por ato jane me te vertete te zote per te mesuar rreth ligjeve te mjediseve te ndryshme.
And of course, we human beings are way out on the end of the distribution like the crows. We have bigger brains relative to our bodies by far than any other animal. We're smarter, we're more flexible, we can learn more, we survive in more different environments, we migrated to cover the world and even go to outer space. And our babies and children are dependent on us for much longer than the babies of any other species. My son is 23. (Laughter) And at least until they're 23, we're still popping those worms into those little open mouths.
Dhe sigurisht, ne qeniet njerezore jemi ne fund te kurbes se shperndarjes si sorrat. Ne kemi trurin me te madh krahasuar me trupin tone me te madh nga cdo kafshe tjeter. Ne jemi me te zgjuar, ne jemi me fleksibel, ne mund te mesojme me shume, ne mbijetojme ne shume ambjente te ndryshme, ne migruam ne gjithe boten dhe madje shkuam ne hapesire. Dhe bebet dhe femijet tane jane te varur nga ne per nje kohe me te gjate sesa bebet e llojeve te tjera. Djali im eshte 23 vjec. (Te qeshura) Dhe te pakten derisa ata jane 23, jemi akoma duke i ushqyer ata me krimba ne gojezat e tyre te hapura.
All right, why would we see this correlation? Well an idea is that that strategy, that learning strategy, is an extremely powerful, great strategy for getting on in the world, but it has one big disadvantage. And that one big disadvantage is that, until you actually do all that learning, you're going to be helpless. So you don't want to have the mastodon charging at you and be saying to yourself, "A slingshot or maybe a spear might work. Which would actually be better?" You want to know all that before the mastodons actually show up. And the way the evolutions seems to have solved that problem is with a kind of division of labor. So the idea is that we have this early period when we're completely protected. We don't have to do anything. All we have to do is learn. And then as adults, we can take all those things that we learned when we were babies and children and actually put them to work to do things out there in the world.
Atehere, pse duhet ta shohim kete korrelacion? E pra, nje ide eshte qe kjo strategji, kjo strategji e te mesuarit, eshte me te vertete e fuqishme, strategji e madhe per te avancuar ne bote, por ka nje disavantazh te madh. Dhe ky disavantazh i madh eshte qe, derisa te besh te gjithe ate te mesuar, ti je i pazoti. Pra ju nuk doni te keni keto mastodonte t'ju akuzojne ju dhe te jeni duke i thene vetes, "Nje llastik ose ndoshta nje shtize mund te punoje. Cila do te ishte me mire?" Ti do ta dish te gjithe kete perpara se mastodontet te shfaqen. Dhe menyra sesi evolucioni duket te kete zgjidhur kete problem eshte me nje lloj ndarjeje te punes. Pra ideja eshte qe ne kete periudhe te heret kur jemi plotesisht te mbrojtur, nuk na duhet te bejme asgje. Gjithcka qe na duhet te bejme eshte te mesojme. Dhe me pas si te rritur, ne mund te marrim te gjitha keto gjera qe kemi mesuar kur kemi qene bebe dhe femije dhe ti vendosim ato ne pune per te bere gjera ne boten jashte.
So one way of thinking about it is that babies and young children are like the research and development division of the human species. So they're the protected blue sky guys who just have to go out and learn and have good ideas, and we're production and marketing. We have to take all those ideas that we learned when we were children and actually put them to use. Another way of thinking about it is instead of thinking of babies and children as being like defective grownups, we should think about them as being a different developmental stage of the same species -- kind of like caterpillars and butterflies -- except that they're actually the brilliant butterflies who are flitting around the garden and exploring, and we're the caterpillars who are inching along our narrow, grownup, adult path.
Pra, nje menyre per te menduar rreth kesaj eshte qe bebet dhe femijet e vegjel jane si sektori i kerkimeve dhe zhvillimit te species njerezore. Pra, ata jane shkencetare te mbrojtur qe duhet vetem te dalin e te mesojne dhe te kene ide te mira, dhe ne jemi prodhimi dhe marketingu. Duhet t'i marrim te gjitha keto ide qe mesuam kur ishim femije edhe ti vendosim ne pune aktualisht. Nje menyre tjeter per te menduar rreth kesaj eshte qe ne vend qe t'i shohim bebet dhe femijet si te rritur te manget ne duhet te mendojme rreth tyre si individe ne nje faze te ndryshme te zhvillimit te te njejtit specie -- sic jane vemjet dhe fluturat -- pervec se ato jane vertete flutura te shkelqyera qe fluturojne rreth kopshtit dhe eksplorojne, dhe ne jemi vemjet qe perparojne gradualisht gjate shtegut te ngushte te te rriturve.
If this is true, if these babies are designed to learn -- and this evolutionary story would say children are for learning, that's what they're for -- we might expect that they would have really powerful learning mechanisms. And in fact, the baby's brain seems to be the most powerful learning computer on the planet. But real computers are actually getting to be a lot better. And there's been a revolution in our understanding of machine learning recently. And it all depends on the ideas of this guy, the Reverend Thomas Bayes, who was a statistician and mathematician in the 18th century. And essentially what Bayes did was to provide a mathematical way using probability theory to characterize, describe, the way that scientists find out about the world. So what scientists do is they have a hypothesis that they think might be likely to start with. They go out and test it against the evidence. The evidence makes them change that hypothesis. Then they test that new hypothesis and so on and so forth. And what Bayes showed was a mathematical way that you could do that. And that mathematics is at the core of the best machine learning programs that we have now. And some 10 years ago, I suggested that babies might be doing the same thing.
Nese kjo eshte e vertete, nese keto bebe jane dizenjuar per te mesuar -- dhe historia e evolucionit do te thote qe femijet jane atje per te mesuar, kjo eshte arsyeja qe ekzistojne -- ne mund te presim qe ato te zoterojne mekanizma shume te fuqishem te te mesuarit. Dhe ne te vertete, truri i bebeve duket te jete kompjuteri me i fuqishem i te mesuarit ne planet. Por kompjuterat e vertete jane duke u bere gjithnje e me te mire. Dhe kohet e fundit ka ndodhur nje revolucion ne te kuptuarit e makines se te mesuarit. Dhe cdo gje varet ne idete e ketij djali, Reverend Thomas Bayes, qe ishte nje statisticien dhe matematikan ne shekujt 18. Dhe ne thelb cfare Bayes beri ishte per te provuar nje rruge matematike duke perdorur teori te probabilitetit per te karakterizuar, pershkruar, menyrat qe shkenctaret zbulonin rreth botes. Pra, cfare shkenctaret bejne eshte qe ato kane nje hipoteze per te cilen mendojne se mund te jete e mundur per te filluar. Ato shkojne jashte dhe e testojne ate kunder provave. Evidencat i bejne ato te ndryshojne kete hipoteze. Me pas ato testojne ate hipoteze te re dhe keshtu me rradhe. Dhe cfare Bayes tregoi ishte menyra matematika se si mund te behej. Dhe kjo matematike eshte ne thelb te programeve me te mire te makines se te mesuarit qe ne kemi tani. Dhe rreth 10 vjet me pare, une sugjerova qe bebet mund te bejne te njejten gje.
So if you want to know what's going on underneath those beautiful brown eyes, I think it actually looks something like this. This is Reverend Bayes's notebook. So I think those babies are actually making complicated calculations with conditional probabilities that they're revising to figure out how the world works. All right, now that might seem like an even taller order to actually demonstrate. Because after all, if you ask even grownups about statistics, they look extremely stupid. How could it be that children are doing statistics?
Keshtu qe nese doni te dini cfare po ndodh poshte ketyre syve te bukur kafe, une mendoj qe ne fakt duket dicka si kjo. Ky eshte libri i shenimeve te Reverend Bayes. Pra, mendoj qe keto femije jane duke bere llogaritje te komplikuara me probabilitete kushtezuese qe jane duke rishikuar per te zbuluar sesi funksionon bota. Ne rregull, tani kjo mund te duket si nje menyre akoma me e persosur per ta demonstruar. Sepse ne fund te fundit, edhe nese pyet te rriturit rreth statistikave, ato duken shume te trashe. Si mund te jete e mundur qe femijet jane duke bere statistike?
So to test this we used a machine that we have called the Blicket Detector. This is a box that lights up and plays music when you put some things on it and not others. And using this very simple machine, my lab and others have done dozens of studies showing just how good babies are at learning about the world. Let me mention just one that we did with Tumar Kushner, my student. If I showed you this detector, you would be likely to think to begin with that the way to make the detector go would be to put a block on top of the detector. But actually, this detector works in a bit of a strange way. Because if you wave a block over the top of the detector, something you wouldn't ever think of to begin with, the detector will actually activate two out of three times. Whereas, if you do the likely thing, put the block on the detector, it will only activate two out of six times. So the unlikely hypothesis actually has stronger evidence. It looks as if the waving is a more effective strategy than the other strategy. So we did just this; we gave four year-olds this pattern of evidence, and we just asked them to make it go. And sure enough, the four year-olds used the evidence to wave the object on top of the detector.
Keshtu qe per te testuar kete ne perdorem nje makine qe kishim te quajtur Detektori Blicket.. Kjo eshte nje kuti qe ndricon dhe luan muzike kur vendos disa objekte mbi te dhe jo te tjerat. Dhe per te perdorur kete makine shume te thjeshte, laboratori im por edhe te tjerat kane bere me dhjetra studime per te treguar sesa te zote jane femijet per te mesuarit rreth botes. Me lejoni t'ju permend vetem njeren qe beme me studentin tim, Tumar Kushner. Nese une ju tregoj kete detektor, do te filloni te mendoni me faktin qe menyra per te bere detektorin te funksionoje do te jete te vendosesh nje bllok te detektorit. Por ne te vertete, ky detektor punon ne nje menyre pak te cuditshme. Pasi nese leviz nje bllok permbi detektorin, do te ndodhe dicka qe as nuk mund ta keni imagjinuar, pasi detektori vertete do te aktivizohet dy nga te tri heret. Ndersa, nese beni te njejten gje, duke vendosur bllokun mbi detektorin do te aktivizohet vetem dy nga gjashte heret. Pra, hipoteza e pamundur ne te vertete ka evidenca te forta. Duket sikur levizja eshte nje strategji me efektive sesa strategjia tjeter. Pra, ne beme tamam kete; i dhame nje kater vjecari kete model prove, dhe vetem i kerkuam per ta bere te funksionoje. Dhe pa dyshim, kater vjecari e perdori kete fakt per te levizur objektin permbi detektorin.
Now there are two things that are really interesting about this. The first one is, again, remember, these are four year-olds. They're just learning how to count. But unconsciously, they're doing these quite complicated calculations that will give them a conditional probability measure. And the other interesting thing is that they're using that evidence to get to an idea, get to a hypothesis about the world, that seems very unlikely to begin with. And in studies we've just been doing in my lab, similar studies, we've show that four year-olds are actually better at finding out an unlikely hypothesis than adults are when we give them exactly the same task. So in these circumstances, the children are using statistics to find out about the world, but after all, scientists also do experiments, and we wanted to see if children are doing experiments. When children do experiments we call it "getting into everything" or else "playing."
Tani jane dy gjera qe jane vertet interesante rreth kesaj. E para eshte, perseri, mos harroni qe keto jane kater vjecare. Ato sa po mesojne sesi te numerojne. Por ne menyre te pandergjegjshme ato jane duke bere keto llogaritje te komplikuara qe do tu jape atyre nje mase te probabilitetit te kushtezuar . Dhe gjeja tjeter interesante eshte qe e perdorin kete fakt per te krijuar nje ide, per te ndertuar nje hipoteze per boten, qe duket shume e pashprese per ta filluar. Dhe ne studimet qe kemi bere ne laboratorin tim, studime te ngjashme ne kemi zbuluar qe kater vjecaret jane vertete me te zote per te zbuluar nje hipoteze te pashprese sesa te rriturit kur ne i japim atyre saktesisht te njejten detyre. Keshtu qe ne keto rrethana, femijet perdorin statistikat per te zbuluar boten, por ne fund te fundit, shkenctaret gjithashtu bejne eksperimente, dhe ne donim te shihnim nese femijet jane duke bere eksperimente. Kur femijet bejne eksperimente ne e quajme ate "duke u marre me cdo gje" ose tjeter "duke luajtur".
And there's been a bunch of interesting studies recently that have shown this playing around is really a kind of experimental research program. Here's one from Cristine Legare's lab. What Cristine did was use our Blicket Detectors. And what she did was show children that yellow ones made it go and red ones didn't, and then she showed them an anomaly. And what you'll see is that this little boy will go through five hypotheses in the space of two minutes.
Dhe kane qene nje sere studimesh interesante te bera se fundmi qe kane treguar qe kjo loje eshte me te vertete nje program eskperimental kerkimi. Ja ku eshte nje nga laboratori i Cristine Legare. Ajo qe beri Cristine, ishte te perdorte Detektorin tone Blicket. Dhe ajo qe beri ishte ti tregonte femijeve qe e verdha e bente ate te punonte dhe e kuqja jo, dhe me pas i tregoi atyre nje paradoks. Dhe ajo cka ju do te shihni eshte qe ky djale i vogel do shkoje permes pese hipotezave ne hapesiren e dy minutave.
(Video) Boy: How about this? Same as the other side.
(Video) Djali: Po rreth kesaj? Njesoj si ne anen tjeter.
Alison Gopnik: Okay, so his first hypothesis has just been falsified.
Alison Gopnik: Ne rregull, pra hipoteza e tij e pare sapo eshte falsifikuar.
(Laughter)
(Qeshje)
Boy: This one lighted up, and this one nothing.
Djali: Kjo ndricoi, dhe tek kjo tjetra asgje.
AG: Okay, he's got his experimental notebook out.
AG: Mire, ai nxjerr bllokun e shenimeve te tij eksperimentale.
Boy: What's making this light up. (Laughter) I don't know.
Djali: Cfare e ben kete drite te ndizet? (Qeshje) Une nuk e di.
AG: Every scientist will recognize that expression of despair.
AG: Cdo shkencetar do e njihte kete shprehje deshperimi.
(Laughter)
(Qeshje)
Boy: Oh, it's because this needs to be like this, and this needs to be like this.
Djali: Oh, kjo ndodh sepse kjo duhet te jete ne kete menyre, dhe kjo tjetra ne kete menyre.
AG: Okay, hypothesis two.
AG: Ne rregull, hipoteza numer dy.
Boy: That's why. Oh.
Djali: Ja perse. Oh.
(Laughter)
(Qeshje)
AG: Now this is his next idea. He told the experimenter to do this, to try putting it out onto the other location. Not working either.
AG: Tani kjo eshte ideja tjeter e tij. Ai i tha eksperimentuesit per te bere kete, per te provuar per ti vendosur ato ne vendodhje te tjera. Akoma s'eshte duke funksionuar.
Boy: Oh, because the light goes only to here, not here. Oh, the bottom of this box has electricity in here, but this doesn't have electricity.
Djali: Oh, kjo ndodh sepse drita shkon vetem ketej, jo ketu. Oh, fundi i kesaj kutie ka elektricitet, dhe kjo tjetra nuk ka elektricitet.
AG: Okay, that's a fourth hypothesis.
AG. Ne rregull, kjo eshte hipoteza e katert.
Boy: It's lighting up. So when you put four. So you put four on this one to make it light up and two on this one to make it light up.
Djali: U ndez. Pra, kur vendos kater. Pra, duhet te vendosesh kater mbi kete per ta bere te ndricoje dhe dy tek kjo tjetra.
AG: Okay,there's his fifth hypothesis.
AG: Mire, pra kjo ishte hipoteza e tij e peste.
Now that is a particularly -- that is a particularly adorable and articulate little boy, but what Cristine discovered is this is actually quite typical. If you look at the way children play, when you ask them to explain something, what they really do is do a series of experiments. This is actually pretty typical of four year-olds.
Tashme ky -- eshte nje djale i vogel vecanerisht i adhurueshem dhe i qarte, por ajo cka Cristine zbuloi eshte qe ky fakt eshte mjaft tipik. Nese shihni rreth menyres sesi luajne femijet, kur i kerkonin atyre per t'ju shpjeguar dicka, ajo cka ne te vertete ato bejne eshte qe realizojne nje sere eksperimentesh. Kjo eshte pikerisht shume tipike per nje kater vjecar.
Well, what's it like to be this kind of creature? What's it like to be one of these brilliant butterflies who can test five hypotheses in two minutes? Well, if you go back to those psychologists and philosophers, a lot of them have said that babies and young children were barely conscious if they were conscious at all. And I think just the opposite is true. I think babies and children are actually more conscious than we are as adults. Now here's what we know about how adult consciousness works. And adults' attention and consciousness look kind of like a spotlight. So what happens for adults is we decide that something's relevant or important, we should pay attention to it. Our consciousness of that thing that we're attending to becomes extremely bright and vivid, and everything else sort of goes dark. And we even know something about the way the brain does this.
Por, si eshte te jesh kjo lloj qenieje? Si eshte te jesh njera prej ketyre fluturave te shkelqyera qe mund te testojne pese hipozeza ne dy minuta? E pra, nese kthehemi tek psikologet dhe filozofet, shume prej tyre kane thene qe bebet dhe femijet e vegjel ishin pak te vetedijshem nese ishin te vetedijshem ne cdo gje. Dhe une mendoj qe vetem e kunderta eshte e vertete. Une mendoj qe bebet dhe femijet jane ne te vertete me te vetedijshem sesa jemi ne si te rritur. Kjo eshte ajo qe ne dime sesi vetedija e nje te rrituri funksionon. Dhe vemendja e vetedija e nje te rrituri duket si nje perqendrim i vemendjes. Pra, ajo cka ndodh me te rriturit eshte qe ne vendosim qe dicka eshte perkatese ose e rendesishme, duhet ti kushtojme vemendje asaj. Vetedja jone rreth asaj gjeje qe po ndjekim behet plotesisht me drite dhe jete, dhe cdo gje tjeter bie ne erresire. Dhe ne dime dicka rreth menyres sesi truri jone e ben kete.
So what happens when we pay attention is that the prefrontal cortex, the sort of executive part of our brains, sends a signal that makes a little part of our brain much more flexible, more plastic, better at learning, and shuts down activity in all the rest of our brains. So we have a very focused, purpose-driven kind of attention. If we look at babies and young children, we see something very different. I think babies and young children seem to have more of a lantern of consciousness than a spotlight of consciousness. So babies and young children are very bad at narrowing down to just one thing. But they're very good at taking in lots of information from lots of different sources at once. And if you actually look in their brains, you see that they're flooded with these neurotransmitters that are really good at inducing learning and plasticity, and the inhibitory parts haven't come on yet. So when we say that babies and young children are bad at paying attention, what we really mean is that they're bad at not paying attention. So they're bad at getting rid of all the interesting things that could tell them something and just looking at the thing that's important. That's the kind of attention, the kind of consciousness, that we might expect from those butterflies who are designed to learn.
Pra, cfare ndodh kur ne kushtojme vemendje eshte qe korteksi jone paraballor, nje lloj pjese ekzekutive e trurit tone, na dergon nje sinjal qe ben nje pjese te vogel te trurit tone shume me fleksibel, me plastik, me te mire ne te mesuar, dhe mbyll aktivitetet ne te gjithe pjesen tjeter te trurit tone. Pra, ne kemi nje vemendje shume te fokusuar, nje lloj qellimi te drejtuar. Nese shohim bebet dhe femijet e vegjel, ne shohim dicka shume te ndryshme. Une mendoj qe bebet dhe femijet e vegjel duket se kane me shume nje fanar te ndergjegjes sesa nje fokusim te ndergjegjes. Pra, bebet dhe femijet e vegjel jane shume te pazote per tu fokusuar vetem ne nje gje. Por ato jane shume te zote per te marre nje sere informacionesh prej nje sere burimesh ne te njejten kohe. Dhe nese ju shihni ne trurin e tyre, ju shihni qe ato jane te permbytur me keto neurotransmetues qe jane shume te mire per te nxitur te mesuarin dhe plasticitetin, dhe pjeset frenuese nuk jane aktivizuar akoma. Keshtu qe kur ne themi qe bebet dhe femijet e vegjel jane te dobet ndaj te kushtuarit vemendje, ajo cka ne nenkuptojme eshte qe ato jane te dobet per te mos kushtuar vemendje. Pra ato jane te dobet per t'u shpetuar te gjithe gjerave interesante qe mund t'u thone atyre dicka dhe te koncentrohen vetem te gjerat qe jane te rendesishme. Ky eshte lloji i vemendjes, lloji i vetedijes qe ne mund te presim nga keto flutura qe jane te dizenjuara per te mesuar.
Well if we want to think about a way of getting a taste of that kind of baby consciousness as adults, I think the best thing is think about cases where we're put in a new situation that we've never been in before -- when we fall in love with someone new, or when we're in a new city for the first time. And what happens then is not that our consciousness contracts, it expands, so that those three days in Paris seem to be more full of consciousness and experience than all the months of being a walking, talking, faculty meeting-attending zombie back home. And by the way, that coffee, that wonderful coffee you've been drinking downstairs, actually mimics the effect of those baby neurotransmitters. So what's it like to be a baby? It's like being in love in Paris for the first time after you've had three double-espressos. (Laughter) That's a fantastic way to be, but it does tend to leave you waking up crying at three o'clock in the morning.
E pra, nese duam te mendojme rreth menyres se si te provojme shijen e asaj lloj vetedije feminore si te rritur, menyra me e mire eshte te mendoj rreth ceshtjeve kur ne jemi te vendosur ne nje situate te re qe nuk kemi qene perpara - kur ne dashurohemi me nje person te ri, ose kur ne jemi ne nje qytet te ri per here te pare. Dhe cfare ndodh me pas nuk eshte qe vetedija jone tkurret, ajo zhvillohet, keshtu qe ato tre dite ne Paris duken qe jane te mbushura me vetedije dhe eksperience sesa te gjitha muajt qe ishim duke ecur, folur, ndjekur mbledhjet e fakultetit si mumje dhe kthehu ne shtepi. Dhe, meqe ra fjala, ajo kafe, ajo kafe e mrekullueshme qe ke qene duke pire aty poshte, ne te vertete minimizon efektin te atyre neurotransmetuesve te bebes. Pra, si eshte te jesh bebe? Eshte si te jesh ne dashuri ne Paris per here te pare pasi ke marre tre dopio ekspreso. (Qeshje) Kjo eshte nje menyre fantastike per te qene, por do te thote te zgjohesh me te qara ne tre te mengjesit.
(Laughter)
(Qeshje)
Now it's good to be a grownup. I don't want to say too much about how wonderful babies are. It's good to be a grownup. We can do things like tie our shoelaces and cross the street by ourselves. And it makes sense that we put a lot of effort into making babies think like adults do. But if what we want is to be like those butterflies, to have open-mindedness, open learning, imagination, creativity, innovation, maybe at least some of the time we should be getting the adults to start thinking more like children.
Eshte bukur te jesh nje i rritur. Une nuk dua te them shume sesa te mrekullueshme jane bebet . Eshte bukur te jesh nje i rritur. Ne mund te bejme gjera si te lidhim kepucet tona dhe te kalojme rrugen vete. Dhe ka kuptim qe ne bejme shume perpjekje per ti bere bebet te mendojne ashtu si te rriturit. Por nese duam qe te jemi si keto flutura, qe te kemi nje mendje te hapur, studim te hapur, imagjnate, kreativitet, inovacion, ndoshta te pakten per nje pjese te kohes do te na duhet t'i bejme te rriturit te fillojne te mendojne me shume si femijet.
(Applause)
(Duatrokitje)