Séminaire ayant lieu dans le cadre du Doctorat en informatique cognitive, en collaboration avec le centre de recherche CRIA              

TITRE : How Cognitive Immaturity May Support Cognitive Development and Learning

Vladimir M. SLOUTSKY

Jeudi le 5 novembre 2026 à 10h30

Local PK-5115 (Il est possible d'y assister en virtuel en vous inscrivant ici)                 

RÉSUMÉ

Childhood is a period of broad and protracted immaturity resulting in massive limitations and imposing large costs on a caretaker. These limitations include poor control, seemingly chaotic behavior, and very little planning, all resulting in no self-reliance and requiring extensive care. However, there are also important benefits of immaturity, those that make development and adaptation possible. These include the importance of starting small (Elman, Newport), perceptual narrowing (Werker, Kuhl), or tolerance to failure (Bjorklund). I propose another important immaturity-based benefit – broad exploration and information sampling early in development. Typically, this broad exploration and information sampling have been attributed to early curiosity, or non-instrumental value of information. I propose an alternative view, suggesting that broad exploration and information sampling is a consequence of immature Working Memory-Attention system. I then present experimental and computational evidence of how such system may subserve learning and cognitive development. Overall, this research demonstrates how (paradoxically) the very limitations of the early cognition may support or even drive cognitive development.

BIOGRAPHIE

Vladimir SLOUTSKY is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at the Ohio State University. A developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist, he studies how categories emerge in the course of development, how they become lexicalized, and how immature attention and memory subserve this process. A Fellow of Cognitive Science Society, he has authored over 200 scientific papers and chapters and received over $20 M in research funding.

RÉFÉRENCES 

Sloutsky, V. M., Wan, Q., & Turner, B. M. (2026). Working memory, exploration, and cognitive development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Wan, Q., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2025). Working memory shapes information sampling and attention allocation across development. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 155, 479–498.

Wan, Q., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2024). Exploration, distributed attention, and development of category learning. Psychological Science, 35, 1164-1177. 

Sloutsky, V. M., Ralston, R., Turner, B. M., & Ghetti, S. (2025). A little imprecision goes a long way in launching memory development. Child Development Perspectives, 19, 139-145.