Among living creatures, only humans can think about thinking. Researchers recently performed a new set of cognitive tests on one-year-olds to discover how soon humans develop the ability to reason. Their findings surprised them.

The investigators showed the babies short videos of virtual objects bouncing around randomly inside a round "container" that had an opening at the bottom. The contents were then blocked from view, after which one of the objects was seen exiting the container. The researchers measured any surprise in the babies' reactions to the object that escaped through the opening—a choice of one that had been heading toward the opening just before the picture was covered, one that was not near the opening, or one that was actually moving in the wrong direction.

The babies seemed perplexed when the wrong object appeared to escape the container, indicating that even at 12 months they could predict the trajectories the objects should have taken. They were able to combine abstract knowledge with perceptual data in an exercise of "pure reasoning" in the form of Bayesian analyses.¹ Bayesian logic is used in predictive modeling, which attempts to calculate the likelihood of a given future event based on prior events. The authors matched the babies' behavior to this formula, which expresses Bayesian predictive logic:

 

In their article published in the journal Science, the authors wrote that the infants can "integrate multiple information sources and abstract knowledge in reasoning about future outcomes." They concluded, "Preverbal infants' ability to reason about complex unseen events is surprisingly sophisticated."¹

These scientists might not have expected this level of sophistication in infant reasoning abilities, but for those who understand that God made humans in His image—an image that includes the capacity for reason²—it is not so surprising to discover that babies who cannot yet talk nevertheless use Bayesian-like logic in their thought processes.

References

1. Teglas, E. et al. 2011. Pure Reasoning in 12-Month-Old Infants as Probabilistic Inference. Science. 332 (6033): 1054-1059.
2. God appeals to mankind's reasoning in Isaiah 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.