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Washington: Pushy parents often think giving new
gadgets will help improve their baby’s intelligence. But
a new study has found that infants as young as seven
months are able to parse out what is too complex or boring, and
focus on only what they can handle.
The study, published in the open-access journal PLoS
ONE, provides evidence for an idea about baby cognition
that makes intuitive sense, said lead study author
Celeste Kidd from the University of Rochester. The
thinking goes that babies organize their search for
information in a way that makes the most sense for
efficient learning.
If a baby looks at something and it seems too
simple, suggesting there’s not much learning value, he
or she won’t pay attention to that situation or object,
Kidd said.
In their study, Kidd and her team tracked the
attention patterns of 72 babies, aged seven to eight
months, using an eye-tracking device just below a
computer screen. As long as the babies stared at the
screen, the events being played out continued; but as
soon as they looked away, suggesting no more interest,
the trial ended.
In one experiment, the infants watched video
animations of items appearing from behind colorful
boxes.
They lost interest when the video became too
predictable, which meant the probability of a subsequent
event happening was very high. |
