Tag: Susan Carey

  • Science & Tech

    Which hand has the treat? Preschoolers get that, but more options confound.

    Researchers uncover pattern in developmental psychology of 3-year-olds: a struggle to weigh competing options.

    3–5 minutes
    Brian Leahy.
  • Science & Tech

    When a bird brain tops Harvard students on a test

    African grey parrot Griffin shows off his brain power, making students doubt their own.

    4–6 minutes
    Irene Pepperberg with her parrot.
  • Science & Tech

    Big thinkers

    Psychologists at Harvard University have found that infants younger than a year old understand social dominance and use relative size to predict who will prevail when two individuals’ goals conflict.

    3–5 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    What are the “Hard Problems” in the social sciences?

    Just over a century ago, one of the world’s leading mathematicians posed this question to a number of his colleagues: What are the most important unsolved questions in mathematics? The answers – which David Hilbert then ranked in what he believed to be their order of importance – produced a list of 23 mathematical problems…

    7–10 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Posing the Big Questions

    In 1900, renowned mathematician David Hilbert laid down a challenge to future generations: 23 handpicked mathematical problems, all difficult, all important, and all unsolved. Since then, countless mathematicians around the world have struggled to solve the 23 “Hilbert Problems.” To date, 10 have been fully solved, 11 are partly solved or simply cannot be solved, and two remain at large…

    5–7 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    Susan Carey awarded Rumelhart Prize

    Susan Carey, a Harvard psychologist whose work has explored fundamental issues surrounding the nature of the human mind, has been awarded the 2009 David E. Rumelhart Prize, given annually since 2001 for significant contributions to the theoretical foundation of human cognition.

    2–3 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Susan Carey receives David E. Rumelhart Prize

    Susan Carey, a Harvard psychologist whose work has explored fundamental issues surrounding the nature of the human mind, has been awarded the 2009 David E. Rumelhart Prize, given annually since 2001 for significant contributions to the theoretical foundation of human cognition. Carey, the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Psychology in…

    1–2 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    Born to add

    In experiments, 5-year-olds, who had no real experience using number symbols, “added” two arrays of dots and compared them to a third array. When researchers replaced the third array of dots with beeps, the kids integrated the sight and sound quantities easily. The children performed all these tasks successfully, without actual counting or having any…

    1–2 minutes
  • Campus & Community

    They are born to add

    How does someone who hasn’t learned to count yet, say a preschooler, deal with numbers? Adults are comfortable with symbols like “10” to signify 10 balloons, beeps, or beliefs. But how do kids handle numbers when they don’t know numbers? Very well, according to experiments done at Harvard University. In these experiments, 5-year-olds, who had…

    1–2 minutes
  • Science & Tech

    What will it take to attract, and keep, new teachers?

    In today’s expansive job market, with its escalating definition of a competitive salary, teaching is underpaid. Graduates are actively recruited to work in investment banking, consulting, and technology, where beginning salaries average twice those of first-year teachers. Who will become the next generation of teachers? And what will it take to recruit talented people and…

    1–2 minutes