宝贝本领知多少

凡路 王维

Things You Didnt Know Babies Could Do

大部分人都认为，刚出生的小宝宝对世界一无所知。他们可爱有趣，但在真正能被称为有认知能力的“人”之前，他们就像在努力进化着的原始生物一样。然而，研究表明，小宝宝们能做的事远比我们想象的多。他们究竟有哪些出人意料的“特异功能”呢？

1. essentially： 本质上，实质上。

2. 当然，他们很可爱，他们什么都好，但是最终我们会发现，在有资格成为有认知水平的人类之前，他们还是一群在开发自身基本功能的原始生物。primitive： 原始的，远古的；organism： 有机体，生物体；cognitive： 认知的，认识的。

3. give... credit for： 相信某人具有，为……而称赞某人。

4. sound frequency： 声频，音频。

5. assume： 假定，假设。

6. tune： 调整，调到……的频率。

7. simultaneously： 同时地。

8. infant： 婴儿；bandwidth： 带宽，频宽。

9. 这种能力可能是远古时期的人类遗留下来的，那时能听到所有的动静绝对是一种在野外得以生存的优势。remnant： 剩余； definite： 一定的。

10. apparently： 显然地，明显地。

11. indicator： 标志，这里指面部特征；vestigial： 残留的。

12. built in： 固有的；trait： 特征。

13. hunter-gatherer： 狩猎采集者； belongings： 财产，所有物。

14. crucial： 重要的；be inclined to： 倾向于。

15. puppet show： 木偶剧。

16. respectively： 分别地，各自地。

17. hinderer： 破坏者。

18. informed： 有依据的；drooling： 流口水的；blankly： 茫然地； register： 注意到，记住。

19. womb： 子宫。

20. perfect： 使熟练，使完美； converse： 交谈，谈话。

21. verbal cue： 语言暗示； subtle： 微妙的；wink： 使眼色；master： 精通，掌握。

22. vowel： 元音。

23. plug into： 与……连接； pacifier： 安抚奶嘴。

24. vice versa： 反之亦然。

25. 结果显示，当播放他们的母语时，婴儿们能够辨认出来，这表明我们至少生来就有基本的概念，知道我们的母语听起来什么样。rudimentary： 基本的，初步的。

26. add up： 合乎情理，说得通。

27. violate： 违反，违背。

28. suspicion： 怀疑；run： 运行，进行；defy： 藐视，违抗。

Theres simply no better way to put it： Babies are essentially1 vegetables. Sure， theyre cute and everything， but at the end of the day， we all know that theyre primitive organisms whore yet to develop the basic functions to qualify as cognitive human beings.2 As the babies grow， they will slowly develop various functions necessary to survive in the world.

But as research is gradually finding out， babies are capable of much more than we usually give them credit for3.

1. Hearing All the Sound Frequencies4 at the Same Time

We assume5 that a babys sense of hearing is just a primitive version of an adults. Sure， they turn around when you make a sound， but they cant really understand the difference between talking and other sounds. While thats true for the most part， its not because babies are not as good at hearing as we are but because theyre tuned6 to a whole different type of hearing. As scientists at the University of Washington found out， babies hear all the sound frequencies simultaneously7.

When they studied 73 infants to see what type of sound they respond to， researchers found them to be better at listening to a wider bandwidth of frequencies than adults.8 This mechanism helps babies respond to unexpected sounds. They dont need to learn the difference between various types of sounds yet， but they do need to know if anything walking across the room will accidentally drop them off the bed. The ability may be a remnant of ancient times， when hearing everything might have been a definite advantage to survival in the wild.9

2. Distinguishing Faces， Even of Other Species

If youve ever spent time with a baby， youll know that theyre not so great at recognizing people by their faces. They dont seem to behave in a particularly different way when they see someone they have met earlier， unless its their mother or someone they spend a lot of time with. The ability to tell faces apart from each other is something they acquire much later in their lives. Or thats what the babies would rather have you believe， anyway.

Babies are actually pretty good at identifying faces， even when it comes to creatures of different species. In an experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Sheffield and University of London， six-month-old babies were found to be as good as adults at recognizing human faces that they saw earlier. But， shockingly， they were actually better at recognizing monkey faces than the adults. How many of us can tell monkeys apart by their faces？ We bet its not a lot. Yet， apparently10， six-month-old babies can do just that.

We lose the ability to recognize the faces of different species and races as we grow older， because an adults facial recognition is based more on familiarity than absolute facial indicators， but babies still carry this vestigial ability up to a certain age.11

3. Judging Character

The ability to judge how likely someone is to help you comes built in as an evolutionary trait.12 Its a social skill thats essential to operating in a society as well as to survival. This was especially true during the hunter-gatherer times， when knowing if someone was likely to kill you and steal your belongings was pretty helpful.13 Its a crucial ability， and—surprisingly enough—one that comes with the package at birth instead of being developed over years of social communication， as were generally inclined to assume.14

Researchers set up an experiment and made some babies watch a puppet show15. One puppet was shown to be climbing a mountain， while the second and third puppet would either help the climber up or throw him back down， respectively16. When the babies were offered the last two puppets， 14 out of 16 10-month-olds and all 12 six-month-olds preferred the helper over the hinderer17. While researchers still dont know whether its an informed decision， drooling infants seemingly staring blankly at things sure register far more information than we knew.18

4. Learning Language in the Womb19

Learning a whole new language is a process that takes a long time to perfect， especially when it comes to conversing in a social environment.20 The verbal cues， gestures， subtle winks， and other aspects of communicating take years to master.21 While it is something that we get better at as we grow older， this development starts much earlier than youd think： before youre even born.

Babies apparently learn their native language from their mothers in the womb and can identify their mother tongue when theyre barely hours old. Researchers recorded the vowel22 sounds in the native tongues of some 30-hour-old babies and studied their reactions to see if they recognized the sounds. The researchers plugged a pacifier into a computer and made the babies suck on it.23 Sucking for a shorter period of time meant that the sound was familiar， and vice versa24. As it turned out， the babies appeared to recognize the sounds played in their mother tongue， indicating that were born with at least a rudimentary sense of what our native language sounds like.25

5. Knowing When the Physics Dont Add Up26

When you see babies staring hard at something， you dont tend to think so much of it. They might be hungry， sleepy， or just staring at things for no reason. Theyre babies， after all. What we fail to realize， however， is that babies are humans in training and are observing their surroundings to learn how everything works. Moreover， they can tell when the physical rules theyve previously observed are violated27.

Researchers have found that impossible events， like a ball passing through a wall or gravity working in the opposite manner， are picked up by babies as young as 11 months old. Babies were found to stare extra hard at something that didnt add up. Not just that， but in order to confirm their suspicions， these babies ran experiments of their own， like dropping the ball when it was earlier shown to be defying gravity.28