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From the Minds of Babes
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Budapest, Hungary (Science Mag): Human babies between 8 months and a year of age cannot perform certain cognitive tasks. In one of these, called the A-not-B error, an object is hidden under a container and the infant repeatedly reaches for it. Then the experimenter hides the object under a different container, in full view of the infant, but the baby still looks under the first container to find it. Topál et al. propose a new explanation for this error, suggesting that the socially intense "teaching" interaction that usually accompanies the repeated hiding of the object under the first container ensures strong association of the object with that location.
For more information, please visit:
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/321/5897/1831
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