As we have been learning we know that babies aren't just a blank slate. That they are born with certain innate knowledge. In a recent study done by the national academy of science showed that babies know the difference between inanimate objects and animals. They know that a box doesn't have anything in it but a dog does have guts. Peipei Setoh, a psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said " They know that if you remove the inside of an animal it can not function"
They did the study in an interesting way. They had 8 month old babies look at different dolls. Some didn't move or talk at all and other where able to walk around a make some noise. After they opened them up and showed the babies that the insides where hollow. The babies all looked longer at the insides of the dolls that moved and talked because they where surprised that it was empty. They did the study over with animals. Some furry toy animals and other non furry. When they opened it up to show the babies that it was hallow they looked longer at the insides of the furry animals.
This showed that babies are aware of how animals operate.
What do you all thing? Do you believe that babies do know whats going on in the inside? Did you ever see a baby react differently to a toy and a dog?
I think that babies have a little bit of a clue about what's going on, but not much. Maybe they can tell that something is living or that a box doesn't have anything in it, but I don't think that means they really know what's going on. But maybe I'm just snooty. I guess the fact that babies can figure out even basic things is still cool.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder what's going on inside a baby's mind..
This was an interesting blog post, Hudis. When we watched the video about Developmental Psychology, we saw that babies do come equipped with some sort of sense of what is going on around them. I think their prolonged probing at the hollow objects may stem from an expectation that something exists inside, that there must be a factor in operating the device. From a cognitive standpoint, babies cannot make concrete judgements. But it is indeed cool that they know basic ideas from such a young age.
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