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Piaget observed babies tremendously closely and he realized just how philosophically important and interesting they were — though much of the observation was actually done by his wife, Valentine. But even closely observing young children doesn’t really tell you what they can do. For example, we’ve discovered that young children have much better cued memory than spontaneous recall. If you ask a 3-year-old an apparently straightforward question like “How does this machine work?” you’re likely to get a sweet look and either silence or stream of consciousness poetry. But if you ask them, “Does the blue block make it go or does the yellow block make it go?” they will give you the right answer. You have to ask babies and children questions in their language, not ours. It’s taken us 30 years to figure out how to do that, and we’re still learning.

Quote by Alison Gopnik, in this Salon interview. Fascinating! More to come.