The Child as Hacker
Name
nihms-1626455.pdf
Description
Accepted version
Size
1017.27 KB
Format
Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
c18737f7e4dfa71774fb8869ab3d0889
Author(s)
Rule, Joshua S
Tenenbaum, Joshua B
Piantadosi, Steven T
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Rule, Joshua S, Tenenbaum, Joshua B and Piantadosi, Steven T. 2020. "The Child as Hacker." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 24 (11).
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
© 2020 The Authors The scope of human learning and development poses a radical challenge for cognitive science. We propose that developmental theories can address this challenge by adopting perspectives from computer science. Many of our best models treat learning as analogous to computer programming because symbolic programs provide the most compelling account of sophisticated mental representations. We specifically propose that children's learning is analogous to a particular style of programming called hacking, making code better along many dimensions through an open-ended set of goals and activities. By contrast to existing theories, which depend primarily on local search and simple metrics, this view highlights the many features of good mental representations and the multiple complementary processes children use to create them.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TICS.2020.07.005
