What do babies know?
Developmental psychologists are interested in the study of child development. Research has shown that early environmental influences on infant development can have a lasting impact on child and adult outcomes.1 In other words, the first years of a child’s life are really important for ensuring that a child grows up to be happy and healthy. But what do babies know when they are born? What happens during this important early development? How can we measure infant development? Read on to find out!
Babies begin learning before they are born!
Research suggests that babies can begin learning about their world while they are still in the womb. One research study found that newborn babies who were only two days old preferred the sound of their mother’s voice over a stranger’s voice. 2 A similar study conducted in 2014 found that fetuses recognised their father’s voice but still preferred to listen to their mother’s speech - even while still in the womb! 3
This suggests that infants are beginning to learn and recognise voices before birth. This finding is not limited to voices though. Another study found that when mothers listened to ‘soap opera’ theme music in pregnancy, their newborns showed a preference for the same music after birth.4
Babies are born with an innate set of skills, or reflexes. These include the ability to breathe, swallow, suck, and cry – all of which help a baby to survive. Newborn babies are also biologically prepared for social interactions. For example, infants tend to look longer at faces than other objects.5 This can even be seen within a newborn’s first week of life! Researchers recently measured brain activity while newborn babies aged between one to five days old looked at different body parts. Compared to when they were looking at human arms, brain activity was increased when they were looking at human faces!6
What happens during the first year of development?
Throughout the first year of life, babies undergo huge development in terms of their ability to communicate, process information, and move around their environment.7 In fact, babies grow and develop at a faster rate in the first year of life than at any other age! Between the 7th prenatal month and a child’s 1st birthday, the brain increases in weight by about 1.7g a day!7 One neuroimaging study found that babies' brains grew by 64% in the first 90 days.8 Developmental psychologists have attempted to understand how this growth happens, or how babies develop the ability to carry out different cognitive tasks such as retrieving objects or focusing their attention. One common theory is that babies’ abilities to carry out these cognitive tasks might be the result of emerging patterns of interaction between different regions of the brain.9 This is known as the interactive specialisation approach.
How can we measure what babies know?
Measuring infant development can be a little difficult - we can’t ask a baby what they know in the same way we could ask a child or adult to fill out a questionnaire or survey! Instead, we need to be innovative in our techniques. Many of the techniques used by developmental psychologists were developed over the last half of the 20th century, as technologies improved. One common way of studying infant development is through behavioural observations. An example of this is the Visual Cliff experiment created by Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk.10 The visual cliff involves an apparent drop from one surface to another to test infant depth perception. Researchers would examine whether infants would crawl across the apparent drop or whether they would stop when they reached the edge of the cliff!
Another method used in infant research, and one we use at the Babylab in UCD, is eye tracking. Eye tracking technology allows researchers to measure how long infants look at stimuli presented on a screen, where they look and how they visually scan the screen.11 For example, we can use eye tracking studies to measure infant reaction times or what stimuli they might prefer to look at.12
At UCD Babylab, we also use electroencephalography (EEG) to measure brain wave activity. This involves the baby wearing a hat (a bit like a swimming cap!) with electrodes attached that measure electrical activity in the brain.
During EEG testing, a baby might listen to some sounds or watch something on a screen. Researchers can then examine what causes changes in the electrical activity of a baby’s brain. In the picture you’ll see EEGor, our Babylab mascot, demonstrating one of our EEG hats!
If you would like to know more about the research that happens at UCD Babylab, you can read about us here. Next time, Lisa will be talking about how our brains continue to develop throughout childhood!
References
Burchinal, M. R., Follmer, A., & Bryant, D. M. (1996). The relations of maternal social support and family structure with maternal responsiveness and child outcomes among African American families. Developmental Psychology, 32(6), 1073.
DeCasper, A. J., & Fifer, W. P. (1980). Of human bonding: Newborns prefer their mothers' voices. Science, 208(4448), 1174-1176.
Lee, G.Y. and Kisilevsky, B.S. (2014), Fetuses respond to father's voice but prefer mother's voice after birth. Dev Psychobiol, 56: 1-11. doi:10.1002/dev.21084
Hepper, P. G. (1991). An examination of fetal learning before and after birth. The Irish journal of psychology, 12(2), 95-107.
Pereira, Silvana A., Pereira Junior, Antônio, Costa, Marcelo F. da, Monteiro, Margareth de V., Almeida, Valéria A. de, Fonseca Filho, Gentil G. da, Arrais, Nívia, & Simion, Francesca. (2017). A comparison between premature and full term newborns in face preference. Jornal de Pediatria , 93 (1), 35-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2016.04.009
Farroni, T., Chiarelli, A. M., Lloyd-Fox, S., Massaccesi, S., Merla, A., Di Gangi, V., ... & Johnson, M. H. (2013). Infant cortex responds to other humans from shortly after birth. Scientific reports, 3(1), 1-5.
Shaffer, D. R., & Kipp, K. (2013). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence. Cengage Learning.
Holland D, Chang L, Ernst TM, et al. (2014). Structural Growth Trajectories and Rates of Change in the First 3 Months of Infant Brain Development. JAMA Neurol.;71(10):1266–1274. doi:10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.1638
Johnson, M. (2001). Functional brain development in humans. Nat Rev Neurosci 2, 475–483. https://doi.org/10.1038/35081509
Gibson, E., & Walk, R. (1960). The "Visual Cliff". Scientific American,202(4), 64-71.
Oakes, L. M. (2010). Editorial comment: Infancy guidelines for publishing eye‐tracking data. Infancy, 15(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2010.00030.x
Griffey, J. A., & Little, A. C. (2014). Infant's visual preferences for facial traits associated with adult attractiveness judgements: Data from eye-tracking. Infant Behavior and Development, 37(3), 268-275.
