Babies by intuition better in math as a 3-year-old

Intuition gives babies a mathematical and physical understanding

04/16/2014

Babies already have „through an intuitive understanding of numbers, sets, and simple operations“, with which they can solve mathematical and physical tasks better than infants, reports the University of Greifswald, citing the findings of „Greifswald's studies on cognitive development“. Nevertheless, the babies are not „Researchers in diapers“, emphasized Horst Krist, Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Greifswald, to the news agency „dpa“.

The studies funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) include numerous tests by which developmental psychologists want to decipher the thinking of infants. Today, according to the announcement of the „dpa“ in the Institute of Psychology of the University of Greifswald examines the 1000th child. The results so far would show that the often assumed continuity in the development of thinking in babies and toddlers does not exist.„Infants think in a purely intuitive and different way than preschoolers, whose thinking is tied to language“, reports Professor Krist. This is also the reason that the babies on average performed better in the tests than the infants over the age of three years.

With the language development set a change of thinking
According to the developmental psychologist, at about the age of three years, the children start a transitional phase, which leads to a poorer performance in the cognitive tests. „At this age, intuitive knowledge is overlaid by more explicit, more conscious forms of knowledge“, explained Prof. Krist. Presumably, language development hinders the intuitive solution of tasks. From the age of three, the children would „to put language on horseback“ and „want to articulate their knowledge in language“, reports the developmental psychologist. However, the little ones are in it first „still very bad“, what hinders her in solving the tasks. For example, it is comparable to one „Child, who can crawl super, but still switched to running, although initially it will be less successful.“

Intuitive understanding of series of numbers
According to their own statements, the scientists of the University of Greifswald are particularly interested in their research, „How children acquire a concept from the natural series of numbers.“ Here is „It is exciting to see how younger children, building on the intuitions about number, quantity and duration, can acquire an understanding of one, two, three and four, step by step.“ So far, it remains largely unclear, „how the early childhood knowledge about the number and the adding or subtracting of objects during childhood is linked to the culturally mediated number symbols and arithmetical operations.“ In particular, the question, „why younger kindergarten children have difficulty in direct questioning to judge the result of simple arithmetical operations to be right or wrong, even though this seems to succeed even infants a few months old“, stay an exciting puzzle.

Babies perform better in tests than infants
The tests of the developmental psychologists were based on simple arithmetic tasks, which led to an unusual result and thus expected a reaction of the children. For example, a rubber duck was placed on the table, then covered by a curtain and a second duck with the comment „Look at a second duck!“ behind the curtain. When the curtain opens, however, three - instead of the expected two - ducks are behind it. The babies then showed a surprise or surprise, for example in the form of a longer eye contact. The older kids seemed this „impossible“ Event not to register. Here mathematical intuition apparently prevailed over the infantile mind.

There is hardly any continuity in early childhood cognitive development?
The researchers from Greifswald come to the conclusion that cognitive development in the first years of life is characterized by more fractures and less continuity than previously assumed. The thinking of the children changes enormously during this time. The fractions would be, for example, in the so-called „infantile amnesia“ clearly describing the non-remembering ability of the first years of life, explained Prof. Krist to the „dpa“. The events in the first years were not stored in language and therefore later no longer part of the memory. „When the language comes to it, intuitive thinking from infancy gives way to conscious, explicit thinking“, said the Greifswald developmental psychologist.

Derive new approaches to early intervention
Previous approaches to early intervention may fail to meet their goals given the detectable gaps in cognitive development. However, premature conclusions are inappropriate, warned Prof. Krist. Further investigations would have to clarify how the early development of thought is determined. Through the studies on cognitive development, the researchers of the University of Greifswald hope not only for a better understanding of human development, but also for the indirect derivation of new and better ways of promoting the individual development of children and the treatment of developmental problems in adolescents. (Fp)