Trends in Cognitive Sciences paper: infant competence may need no innate core knowledge, just attentional priors
abenitezburraco · x · 2026-10-26
A Trends in Cognitive Sciences perspective paper argues that infants' early competence may be grounded in attentional priors and midlevel perceptual mechanisms rather than innate conceptual structure (core knowledge systems).
Key points:
- A two-stage framework: Selection (attentional priors prioritize continuity, contact, looming, common fate) feeding into Prediction (perceptual organization like grouping, completion, centroid estimation and object tracking predicts stability, trajectory and reappearance).
- Classic paradigms (occluded rod, object support, drawbridge) are reinterpreted: simple grouping/completion and trajectory extrapolation can explain behavior that looks like innate physics knowledge.
- Candidate neural systems proposed: subcortical Pulvinar/SO, dorsal pathway including MT, and ventral pathway for form/object identity.
The argument speaks directly to AI debates on whether models need built-in priors to acquire physical intuition.
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