How do scientists study how children learn?
Cognitive Development is the science that studies what people know and how we come to know it. Researchers study young children to find out how knowledge is represented and organized in the mind, and how and why this changes from infancy to adulthood. Like all scientists, Cognitive Scientists learn in many of the same ways that children do. They make observations, ask questions, gather evidence and form theories. Each study conducted in the Living Laboratory has a particular experimental method. Descriptions of the methods for individual studies conducted in the Discovery Center are available from any staff person and are also available here, on our website.
Cognitive Development is the science that studies what people know and how we come to know it. Researchers study young children to find out how knowledge is represented and organized in the mind, and how and why this changes from infancy to adulthood. Like all scientists, cognitive scientists make observations, ask questions, gather evidence and form theories through controlled experimentation. Each study conducted in the Living Laboratory has a particular experimental method. Descriptions of the methods for individual studies conducted in the Discovery Center are available from any staff person and are also available online (see side bar at left for current research topics).
