Reading reflection on "What every baby knows"

1. The meaning of "inferential learning mechanisms"

                           Inferential learning mechanisms are the "theories" that new born babies have about the world from the beginning. They are able to edit and revise these theories as they gain more knowledge.

2. The changes that occur over the first three years of life (instinctual ability to "distinguish human faces and voices", "understanding that people's actions, emotions and perceptions can be directed at a separate external world", and "understanding that people have different beliefs")

                         Instinctively from birth babies are able to distinguish human faces and voices and within a few days they are able to recognize familiar faces, voices and smells. At about 9 months they can tell the difference between happiness and sadness and anger, and which tone of voice goes with which expression. At around 1 babies begin to understand that other people's actions, emotions and perceptions can be directed at an external world. They can understand pointing and react based on the actions of the people around them. The knowledge of different people having different beliefs doesn't come until about 3 years old. 

3. The assumptions and implications of the article quote, "Babies are like little scientists continually overthrowing theories that no longer fit the evidence.”

                         This quote assumes that from birth babies are capable of pretty high level thinking. It implies that they are able to consciously decide what the "evidence" that they collect means and how it affects their theories. It also implies that babies are able to think without the language that we know and use, that these theories must be in their minds but not expressed in words. 

Intuition & Knowledge

1. What is meant by "reading thin slices"?

Reading thing slices is judging something or someone based on small and quick knowledge of it.


2. Explain intuitive expertise

Intuitive expertise is our mind knowing more information and more quickly knowing information than our conscious mind can. We rely on this knowledge for automatically processing information every day. As we gain more knowledge, our intuition is able to make automatic decisions on something that used to be a reasoned decision of our conscious mind.


3.What are the perils of relying on intuition?

Relying on our intuition can have severe consequences. Our intuition gives us false confidence on a decision, and also makes us fear the wrong things. False confidence can become a huge problem, especially if it leads to make wrong assumptions and therefor cause us to choose a decision that should be thought through. Fearing the wrong things can also be a problem. Our intuition can tell us that something is dangerous, but the alternative could be even more dangerous. It's always a good idea to think decisions through, not just rely on our intuition because facts are more concrete.


4. Is intuition a fair justification for mistakes made in decision-making? Give reasons and examples to support your answer?

I think it depends on the situation if intuition is a fair justification for mistakes made in decision making or not. If you're using your intuition to make a decision that doesn't have a big consequence if you're wrong, then I think it is a fair justification. For example if you use your intuition to make a bet, but you only gamble a dollar or two, even if your decision is wrong and you lose the bet, there's a small consequence and your intuition is a fair justification. However if you shoot someone because your intuition tells you that this person could possibly be the person you're looking for, like in the Diallo case, the stakes are extremely high and intuition alone isn't enough to justify a mistake that cost an innocent life.