Richard Aslin (Yale University), 4pm, Monday March 19th, Weinstein Auditorium, Smith College [co-sponsored by the Developmental Science Initiative and the Office of the President, Smith College]
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http://haskinslabs.org/people/richard-aslin

“What Looking Times and Brain Imaging Can Tell Us About Attention and Learning in Infants”

During the course of development, human infants gather information about the external world without the benefit of an extensive base of knowledge that adults automatically bring to bear on perceptual, motor, cognitive, and language tasks. What mechanisms allow infants to acquire this initial level of information and how does that information guide subsequent learning? Clearly, most learning that occurs in infancy, and a substantial amount of learning in adulthood, is performed without instruction—it is implicit and based on an analysis of the distributional properties of environmental stimulation. In this lecture, Prof. Aslin will present research findings and implications, from studies using behavioral and brain optical imaging techniques.

After 33 years on the faculty in the Department of Psychology and then Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester, Richard Aslin has joined Haskins Laboratories as a senior scientist. He will be re-establishing a BabyLab to carry on the outstanding tradition of developmental research at Haskins, complementing the on-going studies of older infants and young children by other Haskins scientists.