John Locke had proposed that a baby starts his or her voyage in this unknown, complex world as a “blank slate.” Recent psychological studies support the view that children are born not as blank slates, but with certain innate capabilities. These capabilities undergo changes with the help of evolution. Much of this metamorphosis happens through experiences, and experiences are the prime drivers of learning. The innate mental structure of the child also determines what the child learns about the world. As stated in this paper, “animal behavior, including human intelligence, evolved to survive and succeed in this complex ... and very slightly controllable world.”

The paper is an attempt to design robot children, with primitive mental structures incorporated, so that they can perform limited functions in this world. In the course of the experiments, each robot child is expected to undergo changes. McCarthy presents an elaborate menu of carefully pruned, important world characteristics. These lists provide the reader with a panorama of topics, such as the mental framework of babies, objects, things of interest, our perception of objects, features of the “language of thought,” persistence, and continuity of objects.

The rigor and precision of each sentence in the paper is remarkable. The paper is bound to become one of the key contributions to the field of mental structures and learning processes.