skip to main content

Science Nation: Babies and Learning

2 minutes 33 seconds

Now Playing As: Captioned (English) (change)

Are humans pre-wired to know right from wrong or are they blank slates who learn solely by exposure to the environment? The question isn’t new, but by studying the behavior of newborns, psychologist Karen Wynn of Yale University believes she can get closer to the answer. With support from the National Science Foundation, she is investigating the role an infant’s social preferences play in how they learn from other people. Wynn and her team put on puppet shows for infants, with characters that display both pro-social and anti-social behavior. So far, the babies almost always prefer the nicer puppets to the mean ones, indicating humans may be born with an innate preference for pro-social behavior.

Media Details

Runtime: 2 minutes 33 seconds

Computer screens with color-shaded images of a spiral shaped storm. Caption: study hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards from the inside.
Science Nation
Episode 1
3 minutes 14 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Person filling a glass from a faucet. Caption: our risk of contracting some form of cancer would go up.
Science Nation
Episode 2
3 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Green landscape with a hillside in the background. A small industrial installation is present. Caption: They don't know where to get information they can trust.
Science Nation
Episode 3
3 minutes 7 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Robotic arms manipulating a small ball. Caption: is pushing the world of robotics and prosthetics
Science Nation
Episode 4
3 minutes 47 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Bolt of lightning arcing from cloud to ground. Caption: we all want up-to-the-minute information.
Science Nation
Episode 5
3 minutes 9 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
Cluster of nerve fibers. Caption: that can image deep into biological tissue,
Science Nation
Episode 6
3 minutes 6 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Dirty water with bubbles and PVC pipes. Caption: and reused again and again in a sustainable loop.
Science Nation
Episode 7
3 minutes 4 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Person with a fabric cap strapped to their head. The cap has metal rivets and wires attached. Captions: (female) it feels maybe like a mild itchy or tingling sensation.
Science Nation
Episode 8
3 minutes 3 seconds
Grade Level: 9 - 12
Microscopic image showing web-like structures and C shaped tubular organisms. Caption: (narrator) The soil itself is home to a vast number of tiny microbes,
Science Nation
Episode 9
3 minutes 35 seconds
Grade Level: 7 - 12
White glowing orb against a black grid. Caption: Weakly Interacting Massive Particle
Science Nation
Episode 10
3 minutes 19 seconds
Grade Level: 10 - 12