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U. Chicago research shows infants are smarter than previously thought

CHICAGO-While they might still need their parents to change their diapers, one-year-old infants are more cognizant of their surroundings than was previously believed, University of Chicago researchers have concluded.

According to the recent study, conducted by Amanda Woodward, Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago, 12-month-old infants have the ability to understand the intentions that lie behind the actions of others. The article, "Twelve-Month-Old Infants Interpret Action in Context," has been published in the current issue of Psychological Science.

The possibility that infants understand the intentions of others follows an earlier discovery made by Woodward a year ago that infants recognize actions at all.

"The study suggests that 12-month-olds think hard about what others are doing," Woodward said.

Woodward, a developmental psychologist, focuses her studies on how infants relate to the people in their lives.

"I am generally interested in how children have the same cognitive ability as adults and how babies understand the behavior of adults," Woodward said.

The study began over one year ago when Woodward, along with Jessica Sommerville, a U of C graduate student, designed an experiment that would test the behavior of 60 12-month-old infants.

"As adults, we can take the context of actions into account, and I wanted to see if babies could do this too," Woodward said.

During the experiment, Woodward touched the lid of a clear, plastic box that contained a small toy tiger. Sometimes she reached inside the box and grabbed the tiger. Woodward then observed whether or not the infant were able to determine if she was reaching for the toy inside the box or for the box itself.

After witnessing this, the infants were able to understand that her intentions were to grab the toy and not simply touch the box.

"We thought the babies might not be sure what the action was, but we found they were able to reinterpret these actions," Woodward said.

In addition, Woodward's findings shed some light on the rate at which children learn. While her study explains that "the most critical developmental achievements is coming to understand the intentions behind other people's actions," Woodward does not expect her findings to influence how people assess the performance of children in the classroom.

"I suspect that the sorts of things I look at are so basic that there will be no variation in reasoning among each individual infant," Woodward said.

But Woodward does foresee her study as having an effect on relationships between parents and children.

"I think parents will find themselves asking questions like 'How do I teach my babies things, or how do I understand what my baby is thinking?'" Woodward said.

"I'm excited about this interesting new area of research; it opens up new questions for new studies," Woodward said. Woodward is continuing her research on the interpretive ability of infants that are younger than 12 months old.