Babies Can Think Logically Before They Can Talk

    In this article, author Bret Stetka outlines research to show that babies do not need to speak to know basic reasoning. Stetka outlines information surrounding a group of European institutions that  conducted a study in which infants, ranging in age from 12-19 months were given items to inspect,  in particular a dinosaur. The researchers would conduct several different activities where the child would either be shown the toy, or an animation of it by hiding it behind a black wall. The animation included the researchers scouping up the dinosaur in a cup, or by including another toy with it. At first, the children couldn't really understand what was going on. But after a while, "The children deduced in these latter occurrences that something was not quite right, even though they were unable to articulate in words what was wrong." (Stetka 2018) Because, "Eye-tracking—a commonly used technique to gauge mental abilities in preverbal children and apes—showed infants stared significantly longer at scenes where the unexpected object appeared behind the barrier, suggesting they were confused by the reveal." (Stetka 2018) This simply means that infants carry an ability to understand things that are going on around them, even though they don't know how to say it. It shows that infants comprehension doesn't entirely depend on their knowledge of their native language, it shows us that children are a lot smarter and intelligent that we think they are. Cesans-Arlotti, one of the researchers, goes on to explain that during the examinations, the infants pupils became dialated when they saw something out of the ordinary happening with the toys. That it would cause a reaction out of the child. He goes on to add, "I think many people would say that most of their reasoning happens when they are silently talking to themselves in their heads. What this new study reveals is that preverbal infants are also working through this same type of serial reasoning, and doing so before robust language abilities have been mastered." (Stetka 2018) 

    One of the biggest questions I have always had when looking at an animal or an infant is, what are they thinking right now? What is going on in their head? This article stuck out because we often look at infants that are newborn or even 12 months and don't understand how much is going on inside of their minds. There is so much going on. This article provides evidence that even though they can't express it in words, that infants understand and have a capability to understand things gong on around them.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/babies-think-logically-before-they-can-talk/

Alex L.