How much can children understand in the first few years of life? Certainly they know about food, and warmth. But what about love, envy, grief or responsibility?
Dr Judy Dunn of Cambridge University has been studying how and when children acquire these abstract concepts. In conversation with Dr Nicholas Humphrey , Dr Dunn discusses her results. which suggest that young children are far more subtle, sophisticated and devious than psychologists had thought.
Producer GEOFF DEEHAN