Babies can make the mental connection between a picture of an object and the actual thing as early as nine months of age, U.S. and British researchers say.
In a collaborative study by the University of South Carolina and Royal Holloway, University of London, 30 babies from eight to nine months of age were shown a life-sized photograph of a certain toy for a minute, then placed in front of two toys -- the one in the photo and a completely different one -- to see which of them they would reach for first.
In one test that saw the toys put into transparent containers, most babies went for the toy not in the photo, suggesting they recognized the pictured item but found it not as interesting as the new one.
Then in a second test the babies were shown both toys, after which each was placed in an opaque container.
In that case, the toy featured in the photograph was more often reached for first, strongly suggesting the babies had formed and retained a mental image of it, the researchers said.
The researchers were surprised to find that color played no part in either test, that the babies successfully made the connection between a black and white photo of a toy and the real colored toy.
"The study should interest any parent or caregiver who has ever read a picture book with an infant," Royal Holloway psychology researcher Jeanne Shinskey says. "For parents and educators, these findings suggest that, well before their first birthdays and their first words, babies are capable of learning about the real world indirectly from picture books, at least those that have very realistic images like photographs."
The study is just one of several analyzing infant cognition that have suggested babies are smarter earlier than previously believed.
University of Chicago scientists have found babies of the same age as those in the photo/object study -- nine months old -- made accurate inferences about social connections just by watching the likes and the dislikes of people near them.
And a study done by the University of Helsinki discovered infants at several months old could still recognize lullabies heard while in their mothers' womb, remembering sounds that had come from the world outside.
The latest study with photos and real-world objects continues that trend of infants' possessing skill and abilities beyond what was previously thought, the researchers said.
"These findings show that one brief exposure to a picture of a toy affects infants' actions with the real toy by the time they reach nine-months-old," Shinskey says. "It also demonstrates that experience with a picture of something can strengthen babies' ideas of an object so they can maintain it after the object disappears -- so out of sight is not out of mind."
