Message of the puppets

I love experiments like this one. Seven-month-old infants were placed in front of a couple of puppets. Then a screen was placed in front of the puppets. The infants could see a hand reach behind the screen. It either took a puppet or added a puppet. Then the screen was removed. If the infant saw the correct number of puppets the baby looked away fairly quickly. However, if the incorrect number of puppets appeared behind the screen, the baby's gaze lasted longer viewing the puppets. This experiment proved two ideas. First, the executive attention system is already in place; second, a baby has a number sense at seven months.

An experiment of this nature means little out of context to its purpose. But, if you knew the experimenters were tying this to the development of how and when the brain shows self-regulation versus risk-taking, which begins with attention given to something, then a person can appreciate what the brain shows in adults about self-regulation and risk-taking. And, if you knew that it can be taken also that babies can count at seven months, then it can show that the sense of count and the sense that develops sound correlation in language appear independently from each other. That has ramifications for language learning and math learning.

I admire researchers who are so innovative. Unfortunately, such experiments appear in places that people don't normally look. But, experiments like this inform our knowledge base so that we don't have to rely on notions about our executive attention system or about how math might be developed outside of learning how language is developed. People in marketing and advertising should be aware of the executive attention system. They might want to know how that is developed along the way to adulthood and even how adults at different ages exhibit tendencies of complete development or not. Educators should want to know about number sense versus language acquisition. It would affect how early childhood education is viewed or approached by those who run daycare centers and publishers who make books and learning manipulatives.

As it is, this experiment and those like it remain buried in the annals of research. So... unfounded notions will continue and the fact that babies can count at seven months will go unnoticed. The status quo is strong, which is why the term is used - "status is that" (that meaning what has gone before). Too bad. Society could be much farther down the road.