Stephen Downes

How do people learn language? By sampling from the language around them. "Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and 'taking statistics' on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world." Related: Gary Small, "Google is making us smart," he said. "Searching online is brain exercise."