Faculty of Psychology UGM held the seventh International Guest Lecture Series on Friday, November 13, 2020 at 1.30 – 3.00 PM online via Zoom Meeting. The event was attended by 95 participants. They are mostly students followed by lecturers and general public.
The topic for this seventh session called Why Are We Smart? Insight from Cognitive and Developmental Science.
Stella Christie, Ph.D, Research Chair at Tsinghua Laboratory of Brain and Intelligence (THBI) had the opportunity to become the speaker in this session. She explain further about the topic, said that human already have prior knowledge from the early stages of development (infant), including knowledge about object, number, agents, place, shapes. However, the same pattern also found in other primates such as bonobos and chimpanzees. What distinguishes human from other animals is the learning mechanism and tools that humans have, including language. Language is a tool that owned by human, and it contributes to human thinking process and making comparisons.
In addition, through language and communication from an early age will improve their cognitive abilities. Stella said, “Reading stories and talking to children is a good way in order to improve children’s cognitive abilities”. Because by communicating, children will get the ‘data’ that can be used in making comparison, and comparison is a good method for learning.
After the presentation, the event was closed with question and answer session, guided by the moderator, Sutarimah Ampuni, S.Psi., M.Si., a lecturer at Faculty of Psychology UGM.