Speaker
Description
Sophisticated social learning abilities have been considered as one of the key behavioural traits of the human phenotype, and many authors have appealed to domain-specific cognitive learning mechanisms to explain why it emerged in humans specifically. However, according to a recent theoretical proposal, the Postnatal Dependency Hypothesis, human infants' social learning abilities are grounded in a domain-general, curiosity-driven learning processes that are shaped by infants' early bodily and cognitive development. Compared to other animals, human infants are born with comparatively advanced cognitive abilities, but have an exceptionally long period of parental dependency. This results in a species-unique developmental niche, in which cognitively advanced neonates learn to interact with the world predominantly with, and through, their caregivers. Because infants are limited in their ability to act on their environment directly, curiosity-driven learning processes favour engaging with others. This creates a developmental bias towards social learning and exploration that continues into adulthood. Meanwhile, even evolutionary related species, such as chimpanzees, have a significantly shorter period of dependency. Because they can explore the world on their own from a much younger age, they are less likely to encounter possibilities for engaging with others. Therefore, they are more likely to act on their environment directly, rather than by interacting with others, favouring non-social learning strategies.
In this talk, I want to discuss this process from the perspective of curiosity-driven learning mechanisms, the role they can take in explaining species-unique behaviours, and discuss empirical implications of this perspective on developmental research.
