What is it like to be a baby?

This was the question answered by psychology professor Alison Gopnik Monday night at Auckland University – part of the Sir Douglas Robb lecture series for 2012. Obviously, I was interested. Spend five minutes with my boy and you will find yourself wondering – how does this kid's mind work?

Five minutes with a fifteen month old:

He's playing the drum – no, he's heading for the door – but wait, he's seen the shoes, he's picking those up and carrying them back to the toy box, they go in the toy box – next: he sees a cup someone has left on the shelf, he reaches for it, can't get it, grizzles for a bit – moves on to the raisin box he discarded ten minutes earlier, eats some, throws it back down – heads to the laundry, pulls some clothes out of the dryer, brings those into the lounge, puts them in a pile, changes his mind, carries the pile back to the laundry, back in the drier – no, out of the drier, on the floor – back to the toy box, take out a car, drive that along the floor and up the wall, drive it to the couch – climb on the couch – there's a book here, open it, look at a couple of pages, throw it down – try to open the curtains above the couch, can't quite do it, gets annoyed – climbs off the couch, falls down, thinks about crying...doesn't hurt, gets up – sees the raisin box again....

I could go on, but I can see you're getting tired. So what is all this in aid of? Well, Alison Gopnik believes babies are like scientists, constantly testing theories and hypotheses, often again and again, in order to learn how the world works.

This makes a lot of sense when you watch Zephyr at play. This morning he was transferring chunks of playdough on the end of a butter knife from his table to a stool across the kitchen. It was a serious matter. I came and sat with him and showed him how I could make a star with a cookie cutter. He was not in the least bit impressed, as clearly this was not part of his current experiment. (Side note: I do wish he would reach a conclusion with his 'what happens when I throw things from the highchair' experiment).

According to Gopnik, there are two ways to learn: exploit or explore. Kids use exploration to learn. This form of learning does not require an end goal; Zephyr was not hoping to find out how well playdough travels or how its consistency changes when it is left in small pieces in the sun (although these are all things I inadvertently discovered while cleaning the floor afterwards). Instead he was simply exploring, doing, trying, and seeing what happens. Kids learn from everything they do.

Adults use exploitative learning; they learn in order to reach a goal, such as reading a recipe so you can bake your own bread, or watching a tutorial so you can use Photoshop. Because we have already done our experimenting as children, we block out anything we feel we already know about. This can mean when concentrating on the task at hand, we can fail to notice quite important changes in our surroundings.

Learning by exploring does not require the use of the frontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for control and impulse. Which is handy, because this part of the brain does not fully develop until the early 20s, and for babies, it is barely in use at all.

Gopnik talked about an experiment involving some adults who were monitored inside MRI machines as they watched Clint Eastwood's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Apparently, their brain activity was very similar to that of a baby taking in the world around them. Gopnik concluded that being a baby was very similar to watching an engrossing movie, which is a nice hypothesis and one that makes sense when you think of how interested and alert little babies are when you place them in a stimulating environment. However, I do wonder just how engrossing that particular film was to the participants.

Another way to see the world like a baby is to travel. Gopnik spoke about how it is possible to feel like a child when you are thrust into an unusual environment. Suddenly all your senses are open and the world feels exciting and brand new. What else makes you feel this way? Being in love.

Surprisingly, cigarettes can bring you closer to a child's view. Apparently nicotine imitates the chemicals that allow you to pay attention, expanding and opening your view of the world, even if your time in that world is short as a result. Caffeine also helps. A cup of coffee has the effect of inhibiting the inhibitor chemicals, meaning you “see” a broader scope of the world even when focusing on a certain task.

So, Gopnik concluded amusingly: Being a baby is like having three espressos and smoking a pack of Malboros while being in love and in Paris for the first time. A beautiful image – and as she was quick to point out, a fairly valid reason for all those night wakings!

So, hey, I done used my brain and watched a lecture and it was good.