Last week, in the snow, Abby and I tromped out to the psychology department at UMD for another infant study. This is the third study we have participated in, the other two being in the speech and language department.
Studies have already shown that if a person chooses an object, the baby will prefer the same one given a choice. For this study, they showed her a lot of different toys one at a time. Then they showed her two toys and allowed her to choose one. A little yellow box that made a squeeky noise then came out from behind a screen and squeeked at the same toy Abby had chosen. The final part of the study showed Abby two toys and this time, the squeeky yellow box pointed at one of two toys and then Abby was allowed to choose one.
The researchers paid much closer attention to which one she was choosing (they had a list where they recorded her choices), but the interesting thing I noticed was that Abby seemed to choose the toy that was an animal: choosing between a horse and a ball, she chose the horse; between a crab and a truck, she chose the crab.
Someone asked why we had enrolled Abby in the Infant Studies. I guess I'll always be a scientist, wondering why and how. The more we understand about the development of our ability the learn, the better teachers and parents we can be to our children. It is fascinating to watch our daughter learn and grow; every developmental milestone is a small exciting miracle. For that matter, Abby is a small exciting miracle.
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2 comments:
I love you. :) (And your husband, and Abby, of course. But I really do love my sister-in-law; I am very lucky.)
The study is a great idea. How did you ever get set up with this. Make sure to keep us posted about the student and the results.
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