Baby Eyes

Since 1990, researchers at the Yale Infant Cognition Center have been studying the development of infants and young children. Their research examines how babies reason and learn about their physical worlds (such as objects in their environment) and their social worlds (such as the people they interact with).   Of course, none of this would have been possible without the help of parents who generously volunteer their time to participate.

Their studies are designed to be fun for your children, and are absolutely risk-free. Visits last about 30 minutes, with time included to explain the study to parents and to accustom children to their new environment. Babies watch either short puppet shows or videos involving objects or people as their We simply natural responses to these events are monitor.

Here is what they found out:

During one experiment, babies aged six months to one year viewed an animated film depicting a red ball attempting to climb a hill. Along comes a yellow square to offer helpful assistance, and then a green triangle tries to push the ball back down the hill. The researchers measured the length of time the babies then spent viewing pictures of each shape. Eighty percent of the time, the babies preferred the helpful shape over one that was deemed unhelpful.

Another experiment involved the use of "one-act morality plays." The skits were acted out by puppets that took on the roles of "good" or "bad" animals. When given the opportunity, the babies chose the good animals every time. The researchers introduced another element: reward and punishment. The babies rewarded the "good" animal with a treat, but took the treat away from the "bad" animal puppet.

These researchers are concluding that babies have a sense of

moral justice at a very early age.  Maybe that is why most of the babies I have seen that young like grandparents better…  <grin>

All kidding aside, this has extraordinary implications.

Karen Wynn

Yale University psychologist Karen Wynn runs the Infant Cognition Lab at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. With help from the National Science Foundation (NSF), she studies the roots of morality, addressing such questions as: what makes us cooperative and altruistic individuals, even from a very young age?

"Babies are oriented towards pro-social individuals. They prefer interacting with a pro-social individual over an anti-social individual," she explains.

As baby X watches, “We have a puppet,” she explains, “who is trying to open a box; he sees a nice toy inside of it. It's a Plexiglas® box he's just trying to open--he can't lift [the] lid. Then another puppet comes along and helps him open the lid so he can get to the toy inside; so that's the helpful puppet." 

"Next, he's again trying to open up the box," continues Wynn. "And, a different puppet comes along and jumps on top of the box lid, slamming it shut and dashing his hopes of getting in there."

Sara watches each show a number of times. Now it's time for the plot twist that a 19-month old can appreciate. After the shows, a researcher brings out both doggy puppets to within Sara's reach, and each puppet has a plastic treat in a bowl placed in front of them.

The researcher then introduces a third puppet that also wants a treat, and Sara must decide which doggy must give up its treat to the new puppet: the nice doggy that opened the box or the mean doggy that jumped on top of the box. Wynn says a majority of the time, toddler's choices "are pretty clear, they will take the treat from the cad who was rude enough to slam the lid on the puppet."

I find it simply amazing what curious people want to discover…