Alison Gopnik
American developmental psychologist of children's learning
American developmental psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. She is known for the theory theory, the proposal that children build causal models of the world much as scientists develop theories, and for applying Bayesian models to learning.
Why this person matters
Gopnik treats young children as learners who infer causes, which links child development to philosophy of science and machine learning. Her books reach a general audience.
Main contributions
Theory theory
She holds that children build and revise intuitive theories of the world in a way similar to scientific theory-building. Her research covers cognitive and language development, theory of mind and causal learning.
Bayesian models of learning
With computer scientists she applies Bayes net methods to explain how children learn causal structure from data. Berkeley's profile says this research shows young children have more capable causal learning than previously assumed.
Books for general readers
Her books include Words, Thoughts, and Theories (1996), The Scientist in the Crib (1999), Causal Learning (2007, edited with Laura Schulz), The Philosophical Baby (2009) and The Gardener and the Carpenter (2016).
Context and limits
The theory theory is one proposal about how children learn. The sources read give no specific criticisms of it, so none are reported here.
In your introductory course
Lifespan development.Appears in the development chapter on children's thinking and theory of mind, as a contemporary alternative to Piaget's stage account.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 9.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1980
Received her D.Phil. from Oxford.
- 1988
Joined the University of California, Berkeley.
- 2021
Received the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award and the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.
- 2022
Began a term as president of the Association for Psychological Science, ending in 2023.
Sources
- University of California, Berkeley Department of Psychology, Alison GopnikUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- Wikipedia, Alison GopnikReference work. Reference article inspected.