The goal of research in the Infant Cognition Center is to better understand human's non-verbal numerical ability. As adults, we tend to think about number in a very verbal way. We use words to count objects and to compare quantities. However, we don't always have to. When you see three apples, you do not need to count them to know that there are three. You can instantly perceive the "threeness" of the group of apples. Because infants do not speak, they must rely entirely on this non-verbal representation of number. Our studies focus on examining the capabilities of this system.
In our behavioral studies, infants sit in a high chair and watch pictures on a computer screen. An observer records how long your infant looks at the screen and we analyze this data for patterns in looking time. In our ERP studies, we show infants similar images, but we record their brain activity instead of their looking activity.
