Archives of actual cognitive science incidents
- Emma, age 2, is watching a show about lions with her family. A lioness is eating her bloody prey.
- Emma to family: We don't eat blood. We eat sandwiches.
- Father to 5 year old: Did you miss me today?
- Son: No
- Father (flinching): Oh....
- Son (several minutes later, after thinking deeply): No, wait a minute! I did miss you today.
- Father and six year old son riding in car. Son sees motorcycle:
- Son: Daddy, why do motorcycles don't need peddles, but you need to peddle a bicycle?
- Father: Because motorcycles have engines and bicycles don't. The engine makes the wheels go around, but because a bicycle doesn't have an engine, you have to peddle it to make the wheels go around.
- Son: Oh...
- Father: Do airplanes have engines?
- Son: No.
- Father: why not?
- Son: Because, because.... because they don't drive. They drive the air. But when the planes go on the ground, then they have engines.
- Son again, several miniutes later, after total silence: Daddy, does Big Bird have teeth?
- Six year old, worrying about why his bike just tips over by itself: Why do I fall down off my bike?
- Father: Because of gravity. It pulls you down
- Six year old: Oh. Where's the gravity?
- Father: Under the ground. It pulls you to keep you on the ground. Think about it this way. Why are you stuck to the ground? Why don't you just fly up into the air?
- Six year old: Because I don't have wings.
- Father: Oh, yeah.
- Six year old ( a bit later, after picking up his bike and dropping it several times, watching the results, now riding rapidly down a hill on the bike): Hey, Dad! Watch my gravity!