Thursday, September 23, 2010

Is a baby smarter than you?

Read this article describing several different types of psychological observations, measurements and outcomes.

What types of psychology were being used?
Which of the experiments do you feel was most valid?
Are babies smarter than adults?

12 comments:

  1. The Type Of Psychology That Was Being Used Was Cognitive Psychology. I Assumed This By Looking At The Definition Of Cognitive Psych And How It Could Relate To This Article. The Test Part Was More Valid Because It Showed How Well The Children Thought And What Was Running Through Their Minds. In A Sense Yes, Because Their Minds Are Open And They Are Able To Take In Information And Learn From The Situations. Adults, Although Capable Of Accomplishing The Same Thing, They Are More Resistant To Accept Things Because They Either Assume They Know Better, Or That They Just Don't Want To Accept New Ideas. This Causes Babies To Be Seen As Smarter Than Adults Because Although Their Minds Are Underdeveloped, They Can Learn To Think And Have More “Space” To Take In Different Information.

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  2. I think that most of the physiology used here is valid but it just shows that babies absorb a lot of there surroundings but that doesn't prove that they are smarter however they do have the ability to learn more and faster than adults because we are programed to focus on one thing at a time one we become adults. I think babies capacity for learning is higher but there's now way to teach them more information that what an average adult already knows. I think the most valid experiment is the one where they show them the toy and how it works and the ones that don't get shown how it works play with it longer because they are absorbing the information but that still doesn't prove that they can be smarter than an adult, just learn better than one.

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  3. The type of psychology that is being used is the Cognitive approach. I say this because after a couple experiences with the same object then the babies choose the yellow block. They made the connections that the yellow block made the machine light up. I feel like the block experiment was the best apporach because the school setting apporach doesnt really work for young children. Like the article said young children have very short attention span so for them to sit in a class room and try to focus on one thing doesnt work. They can not block out everything around them they try to being in everything at once. I think that children have the potential to be smarter than an adult. I guess we would really never know how much they truley know. They can only do a hand full of test because they are not able to speak. If you just think of that they pick up a language by just being immersed in it for about a year not even that. If you tried to place an adult in a country with a language they did not know it would take longer than a year to be able to being to speak it. That is with out teaching.

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  4. In the article there were trying to figure out how babies mind operated and are they smarter than humans and they used many different methods. The most experiment that was valid was the cause and effect –I think it showed the most because it’s amazing how they knew exactly what the toy was going to do and once they got bored with it they moved on to the next. I thought babies would just be amazed by pressing the button- but actually they understood the concept of the toy. To answer the question no I don’t think babies are smarter than adults because adults to use more critical thinking skills- and have more knowledge than what babies do they were just brought into this world – and have no clue about the outside. The Type of Psychology That Was Being Used Was Cognitive Psychology-I know that because I looked it up and relate it to this article. Babies to Be Seen as Smarter than Adults is Because Although Their Minds Are Underdeveloped, They Can Learn To Think And Have More space To Take In Different Information.

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  7. The type of psychology that is being used in this article is cognitive psychology because the experimenters are observing how the baby’s brain processes the information while they observe things happen. For example when baby’s were ask to chose the block and they chose the yellow block because they had observed that the yellow block would make the machine light up more times than the blue block. I think the best experiment was the cause and effect experiment with the toy because I think most babies tend to react that way with a new toy. First they start exploring the toy but when they get bored they just move to the next toy that catches their attention and this way they’re learning how things work. I think babies can me smarter than adults because their minds are open to explore new things without fear of making a mistake while doing it, adult since they have some knowledge of what they about to learn they fear making mistakes and get more frustrated while doing it.

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  8. I do not feel like babies are smarter than adults, because adults have learning experience and babies really havent learned anything yet. The experimenters decided to get a group of kids and they gave them mixed up ping pong balls (red and white) to see if they knew probability. The second experiment is the kids were given a pop up toy with two lever to see if they would learn cause and effect. The third experiment was to see if kids used probability to learn how things worked and that this lets them imagine new possibilities. These experiments were trying to prove that babies are smarter than we all think, we tend to underestimate how much they really understand. Babies actually understand alot of what we say and do, it just take a little bit of time. This doesnt mean that babies are smarter than adults though, because we may also have different ways of figuring out the same things the babies supposedly learned how to. We have many different ways of figuring things out that babies cant do, we have went to school and college and everything. Babies dont always understand words that we say and its hard for them too communicate with us also.

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  9. ok well i do not believe that a baby is smarter than me or most adults. I say this because even though a baby's brain is basically a blank slate they still do not have the knowledge that i have on many things in the world. They do not know how to speak or walk or anything that is important in the real world.
    i think that the type of pyschology that is used in this artical is expriments pyschology, because of the expriements that were taking place in this article and plus it basically said that in the article. The most valid expriment was when they demonstrate that children explore cause and effect with the toys that the expreimenters gave them.

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  10. The type of psychology being used throughout this article was experimental psychology. This was used by observing the babies while doing their experiment. They did some cause and effect experiments to see if the babies can understand what they were doing. Also they showed and proved that the babies could understand probability. I feel that the most valid experiment was the one they did with the blocks. This actually showed how smart the children really are. Babies comprehend really well and having a certain level of smartness that allows them to learn different behaviors in different ways. These tend to get repeated these action later on in life. I feel that no babies aren’t smarter than older people. It may seem this way because the way their brain works and compare that to the way that our brains work. Babies brains are very immature and our brains are still growing but more mature than a babies brain and can carry more information.

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  11. The type of psychology I noticed was experimental psychology. The most valid experiment I noticed was the lever. The lever experiment seemed like the most graphical proof. It not only showed how quickly they all learned, but it showed that mysteries interest them. When the baby did not understand how the toy worked it felt more curious and interested than the baby who already knew. I do not believe that babies are smarter than adults. The human mind can become as broad as the human allows it so there is not possible way. For example people like Einstein and Ken Jennings are a chosen few who have broadened the mind to a very rare state.

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  12. The type of psychology that was demonstrated i think was cognative psychology the test were valid becase they went into detail aout how they were preformed and i think that young children are smarter in te sence that there ability to learn is much better. young children learn alot more then most adults learn in five years. at least on an informational stand point.

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