Initial knowledge: six suggestions.
Although debates continue, studies of cognition in infancy suggest that knowledge begins to emerge early in life and constitutes part of humans' innate endowment. Early-developing knowledge appears to be both domain-specific and task-specific, it appears to capture fundamental constraints on ecologically important classes of entities in the child's environment, and it appears to remain central to the common-sense knowledge systems of adults.
Spelke
E
E
Psychology Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011939:Mental Recall; D009039:Motion Perception; D011340:Problem Solving; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D014796:Visual Perception