ABSTRACT
The new model hypothesizes that neonates come equipped with a complex set of capacities which guide the development of later abilities. It is not proposed that these abilities are fully preformed in the infant, but rather that innate con straints interact with particular aspects of experience to construct the final sys tem. However, it is not naked experience that interacts with these innate propen sities. These innate capacities serve as an experiential filter which directs the infant to pay particular attention to certain aspects of experience and to ignore other aspects of noise. The infant is like a miniature scientist who comes equipped with a theory about what the world he has come into is likely to be like. In evolutionary terms this is a good strategy. The infant does not have the impossible job of having to choose from an infinite set of possible models of the world. His innate constraints limit the number of possible models he has to consider. Yet, at the same time, these innate capacities are not so predetermined that they cannot take account of the variability that may occur in the world.
