Pub. 9 2019-2020 Issue 1

14 It has long been known that people need certain things to survive. The obvious needs are breathing, eating, drinking and sleeping. But in a recent study that was presented in the journal Science, experts have learned that people also need to learn. Learning, it appears, is a core need for psychological wellbeing that is evidenced all through our lives, from infancy on. How we learn is a study in and of itself. According to Lisa Feingenson, a profes- sor of psychological and brain sciences Teaching with A s kids we’re born with a sense of wonder; it’s something we naturally engage with. at Hopkins and one of the researchers behind this study, the general thought is that "some pieces of knowledge are so fundamental in guiding regular, every- day interactions with the environment, navigating through space, reaching out and picking up an object, avoiding an oncoming object – those things are so fundamental to survival that they're really selected for by evolution." Fundamental knowledge is what some scientists call core knowledge – and scientists say we're born with it. For example, even babies seem to know that a ball can't go through a wall, despite being too young to have consciously learned anything much about walls or balls. That being said, when people can suspend their disbelief, they get caught up in the moment and their attention is attracted to what they think is happening even though it seems impossible. ADVERTISEMENT