title: Finding new facts; thinking new thoughts.
abstract: The idea of the child as an active learner is one of Piaget's enduring legacies. In this chapter, I discuss the ways in which contemporary computational models of learning do, and do not, address learning as an active, child-driven process. In Part 1, I discuss the problem of search and exploration. In Part 2, I discuss the (harder and more interesting) problem of hypothesis generation. I conclude by proposing some possible new directions for research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. lschulz@mit.edu
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schulz
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D003469:Culture; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D019545:Intuition; D007858:Learning; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011936:Reality Testing; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013850:Thinking