Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2009 Jul;4(4):352-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01137.x.
In this article, I propose that the big question for the field of infant cognitive development is best characterized as the "Humpty Dumpty problem": Now that we have studied cognitive abilities in isolation, how do we put the developing cognitive system (and the infant) back together again? This problem is significant because cognitive abilities do not occur in isolation. Infants remember the items they have attended to and perceived, and their emotional state will influence their perception and representation of the events they encounter. Moreover, by examining the development of the whole cognitive system, or the whole child, we gain a deeper understanding of mechanisms developmental change. Thus, the big question for the study of infant cognition is like the question confronting all the king's horses and all the king's men: How do we put the infant's cognitive system back together again?
在本文中，我提出婴儿认知发展领域的最大问题可以最好地描述为“汉普蒂·邓普蒂问题”：既然我们已经孤立地研究了认知能力，那么我们如何将发展中的认知系统（和婴儿）重新组合在一起？这个问题很重要，因为认知能力不是孤立存在的。婴儿会记住他们注意到和感知到的物品，他们的情绪状态会影响他们对所遇到事件的感知和表现。此外，通过研究整个认知系统或整个儿童的发展，我们可以更深入地了解发展变化的机制。因此，婴儿认知研究的最大问题就像所有国王的马和所有国王的人都面临的问题一样：我们如何将婴儿的认知系统重新组合在一起？
