Babies’ minds aren’t just voids, waiting to gain capabilities. Instead, recent research is showing more and more that they are in fact well-designed to do what they need to do best: learn and discover.

“Adults can follow directions and focus, and that’s great,” says John Colombo, a psychologist at the University of Kansas. “But children, it turns out, are much better at picking up on all the extraneous stuff that’s going on… . And this makes sense: If you don’t know how the world works, then how do you know what to focus on? You should try to take everything in.”