German scientists have used a special “eye-tracker” to prove that babies are aware of their environment and are able to do things intentionally earlier than was previously believed.
The team of researchers from the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Goethe University Frankfurt and the Goethe-Institute Frankfurt took 24 six-month-old and six eight-month-old infants and showed them a computer screen with a red dot.
Using eye-tracking technology, the researchers set off a brief “bing” noise every time the babies looked at the dot. A picture of an animal also appeared next to the dot....