Quinn participated in her first experiment yesterday. (As a subject; all babies are mini-scientists who are running experiments all the time as they figure out how the world works.)
She was in a study at the linguistics lab, one of three labs at the University of Maryland that do infant studies. I held her on my lap and had a visor over my eyes so I couldn't see the large screen TV she was looking at. Apparently, the screen was split in two, with different versions of a woman's face on either side. One was saying "ooo," the other was saying "eee." For the first half of the time, the woman's voice saying "ee. ee. ee." was played. For the second half, it said "oo. oo. oo."
A video camera recorded where Quinn was looking when this was going on. Apparently, she (like other babies who are 4 months old) looks more at the face whose mouth matches the sound. Anyway, it was pretty fun, and I always like doing my part to advance the cause of science.
2 comments:
YAY For UMD Studies! :o)
That's really interesting that they look at the mouth that's shaped correctly for the sound being made. Back in Chicago I knew a psych grad student who worked in a baby lab. They had a small platform that they could drag across a tabletop, and a small toy with a magnet in it. First they would put the toy on the platform and move the platform, and see if this got the baby's attention. Then they would put the toy next to the platform, and while they were moving the platform, they would also move a magnet underneath the tabletop, so the toy would disobey physics by moving alongside the platform without being attached to it. Was the baby more interested in the case where magic happens? I think the answer was yes, once they got past a certain age. That seems to be the opposite of what's happening in this language study, although it's not quite the same situation.
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