Children are often seen as self-centered, and there’s a good reason for it. Egocentrism means that young children tend to focus on themselves. And have a hard time understanding things from other people’s perspectives. For example, when a 3-year-old tries to guess what someone else might do. They only think about what they would do. Not considering what the other person might think or feel. It’s like they have a “me, me, me” filter on their thoughts. This makes it tricky for them to see things from other people’s points of view. This goes away when they grow older, but here’s the interesting part! Researchers studied 8- and 12-month-old babies. And they discovered that younger babies paid more attention to where a special animated character was looking than where they themselves were looking. Let’s try and understand more about this study!
Coming to The Aim of This Research!
In a fresh study by the University of Copenhagen, researchers explored how well 8- and 12-month-old babies could remember a moving object’s location.
The aim of the project was to investigate a theory. The one suggesting that during early infancy, there is something called an “altercentric bias.” What does this mean? Well, the “altercentric bias” refers to a tendency or preference, especially observed in young children and infants, to pay more attention to what others are focused on or looking at, rather than relying solely on their own perspective.
For this, the research, named “An initial but receding altercentric bias in preverbal infants’ memory,” has been released in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Let’s Get To The Crux Of It
First, the researchers wanted to see if 8-month-old babies could remember where an object went. When it was moved from one hiding spot to another. They showed the babies an animation with a conveyor belt. Or a hand moving a ball behind one screen and then behind another.
When they uncovered one of the hiding spots and showed it was empty, the babies looked longer at that spot. This means they remembered where the ball should be.
Next, the researchers did another test to see if the babies paid attention to what other people were looking at. They had an animated person also follow the ball’s movement.
Surprisingly, when the babies saw the animated person watching the ball go to the first hiding spot, they still expected the ball to be there, even though they saw it go to the second spot. So, they paid more attention to what the animated person was looking at than what they themselves had just seen.
The research team wanted to find out when children start trusting their own observations more. So, they did similar tests with 12-month-old children. They found that at around 12 months old, children start to trust their own memory and observations more and rely less on what others are looking at.
How Are These Findings Helpful?
This research suggests that at around 12 months old, children are going through a transitional phase. During this time, some infants are becoming less affected by what others are looking at, and they start trusting their own observations more.
This means that during early infancy, babies are still developing their motor skills, which means they cannot explore and interact with the world as effectively as older children or adults. In this phase, relying on others’ observations can be helpful as a way to gather information about the environment.
As the baby grows and their motor skills improve, they can start to explore and interact with the environment more independently. This allows them to rely less on others’ observations and use their own experiences and memory to understand the world around them.
Leave feedback about this