Babies May Think Deep Thoughts

Baby may not be saying much at five months but she could be thinking deep thoughts.

Researchers have found that five-month-old babies can comprehend concepts for which they have not yet learned words, thus answering the age-old question: Which comes first, an idea or the language to express it?

"How do we think about the world before we are corrupted by culture and the world?" One way to learn is to look at babies.

Researchers found that 5-month-old babies being reared in English-speaking homes were able to grasp the difference between a loose fit and a tight fit - putting a pencil into a plastic cup, for instance, versus stacking a second cup inside the first. By showing that babies growing up in English-speaking homes are sensitive to the distinction, the researchers demonstrated that some forms of thinking do precede language.

Moreover, infants seem to share fundamental ideas about the world around them that languages later alter.

Babies can learn any language but eventually lose the ability to detect foreign sounds - this is partly why it is difficult to learn a second language at an older age.

However, humans don't lose the ability to learn distinctions in meaning.