Developmental Psychology- Are human infants as helpless as they seem?
- Babies do maths: adding and subtracting
- A Mickey Mouse experiment: 1 + 1 = 1
- Even knowledge of language may be genetically determined
Are human infants as helpless as they seem? Developmental psychologists are interested in processes of change. They want to know how babies learn and grow to
become mature adults with a sophisticated knowledge of the world. Newborn infants appear to be the most helpless of all
mammalian offspring, but it has been discovered that they come into the world already equipped with abilities that provide
the springboard for future growth. Babies do maths: adding and subtracting For example, even 4-month-old babies seem capable of rudimentary counting. Of course, they cannot count out loud,
because infants do not speak their first words until they are about one-year-old. But psychologists can gain an insight into
what babies know by presenting them with impossible events, a bit like magic tricks or illusions. If babies show surprise, we
can be fairly sure that their expectations have been violated. And their expectations are based on what they know about the
world. A Mickey Mouse experiment: 1 + 1 = 1 In one experiment, infants are shown a single Mickey Mouse doll. A screen is then raised, hiding the doll from view.
Infants next see the experimenter's hand reaching behind the screen to add a second Mickey Mouse doll. 1 + 1 = 2, right?
Wrong, because unbeknown to the infant, the experimenter secretly removes one of the dolls. When the screen is lowered, there
is only one Mickey Mouse doll, instead of the two that simple maths dictates. In effect, infants have been shown a sum
equivalent to 1 + 1 = 1. Of course, this is an impossible outcome and infants stare longer at this event than when presented
with a logically possible situation. Even knowledge of language may be genetically determined This experiment provides a graphic demonstration that infants are pre-wired with essential knowledge of the world. It
has even been suggested that infants are born knowing fundamental rules of grammar. Once they start, children acquire
language amazingly fast and with little effort or direct teaching by parents. Compare children's knowledge of language at the
age of 5 with the struggles they have tying their own shoelaces. Yet grammar is incredibly complex and abstract. In
consequence, some psychologists argue that grammar must be genetically determined.
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