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<div>At 10:49 AM +0100 6/4/03, Alcock, Katie wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font face="Arial" size="-1">My brother
and his wife, an ecologist and a university adminstrator, are
expecting their first baby - and I get asked this question by educated
and intelligent parents of infants who come into our lab. What
is a good book on child development, especially infant development,
for the lay person? I'm particularly looking for one that is well
balanced and steers clear of, or at least balances out, the "baby
as mini-scientist who knows oh-so-much about the world" but also
the "it's essential you expose your child to Mozart in the womb"
ends of the spectrum.</font></blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>Dear Katie,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>If your brother and his wife are the sorts who like reading
popular science, they might also enjoy reading my forthcoming book,<i>
The Birth of the Mind</i> (Basic Books, January 2004), which focuses
on understanding the biological contribution to early (especially
prenatal) development, what genes do, how embryology works, how the
circuitry of the brain gets wired, and how genes themselves make
learning possible. (A brief snippet, apropos Mozart, is below.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>It's still at the copy editor, but if your brother and
sister-in-law wanted a sneak preview, let me know.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Best,</div>
<div>Gary</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div align="center">From<i> The Birth of the Mind (Basics Books),
Copyright (2003) Gary F. Marcus 2003</i>:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Garamond" size="+1" color="#000000">Babies can learn
even when still inside the womb. In one delightful study,
psychologists Anthony DeCasper and Melanie Spence asked prospective
mothers to read a three minute passage from either Dr. Seuss<i> The
Cat in The Hat</i> or Gurney and Gurney's<i> The King, The Mice, and
The Cheese.</i> Tested just a day or two after birth, the infants that
had been exposed to Seuss in the womb preferred Seuss; those that
heard The King preferred The King -- even when another person read the
stories. This is not to say late trimester infants actually<i>
understood</i> the Cat's tale, but they do seem to have caught on to
its distinctive rhythms. Another study showed that third trimester
fetuses could pick up the melody in<i> Mary Had a Little Lamb</i>, and
another that they could recognize the melody from the theme song of a
British soap opera. (I am not, however, suggesting that you try
this at home. There's no evidence that prenatal exposure has any
lasting long-term consequences, and some experts believe that such
deliberate exposure could actually be disruptive to the developing
auditory system as well the baby's natural wake-sleep
cycles.)</font></div>
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<div><font color="#000000"><br>
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Tel: (650) 321-2052</font></div>
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