Babies 'spot mathematical errors'

[Guest guest]

What I find surprising, is the fact that the researchers find this

surprising!

 

Jo

 

The study found babies knew what they should be seeing

Babies as young as six months old can spot mathematical errors,

researchers have claimed.

A team of Israeli and US scientists scanned the brains of babies aged

six to nine months as they were shown puppet displays.

 

The infants looked longer at unexpected outcomes - if there were too

many puppets - and their brain activity was like that seen in adults

after errors.

 

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of

Sciences.

 

The babies are recognising where things are and where they should

be.

 

Dr Stella Acquarone, British Psychological Society

 

Previous research has found babies look longer at the unexpected.

 

But researchers were not certain that meant they were actually

surprised by what they saw.

 

In this study, 24 infants were shown two puppets which were then

obscured by a screen.

 

The babies then saw a hand remove one of the puppets, and the screen

was then removed, revealing either one puppet, as would be expected,

or two, which would not.

 

In those situations, the researchers used an electroencephalogram

(EEG) to measure brainwave patterns through electrical signals from

the brain.

 

Development test

 

It was found that infants looked for over a second longer when

the " incorrect " number of puppets were revealed.

 

Adults given a similar " correct or incorrect " mathematical

presentation showed a faster version of the same response.

 

Writing in PNAS, the team led by Dr Andrea Berger of Ben Gurion

University of Negev, said: " This study demonstrates that this error

detection system may be present in the brains of infants and is

activated when they are surprised by an incorrect arithmetic

solution. "

 

The researchers said that their work showed babies could detect

errors before the end of their first year of life, an ability linked

to having the capacity to regulate their behaviour and emotion later

on.

 

Dr Stella Acquarone, a London-based psychologist and member of the

British Psychological Society, who specialises in early development,

said: " The babies are recognising where things are and where they

should be.

 

" This could be used as a test to ensure this ability is present in

babies of this age. "