Babies as young as eight months show flexible learning abilities

Babies as young as eight months old can adapt their learning style to changing situations, according to research by Francesco Poli of the Donders Institute at Radboud University. This is the first time that babies have been shown to learn in such a flexible way.

The conventional wisdom is that eight-month-old babies passively absorb knowledge."

Francesco Poli, neuroscientist

New research now shows that this is not the case. 'We see that babies are able to adapt their learning strategies to their environment from a very young age.

Monster here, monster there

Poli investigated this by showing babies a screen displaying a colourful monster. Sometimes the monster appeared on one side of the screen, sometimes on the other. "For example, we sometimes let the monster appear only on the left side for a while and then suddenly on the other side. Meanwhile, we used eye tracking [a camera in the screen with harmless infrared light] to monitor where the baby was looking and whether the pupil size changed." The most likely location of the monster remained either the same for a long time (stable environment) or changed frequently (changing environment).

At a certain point, the babies had learned where to look: they were already looking at the place where they expected the monster to appear. "When the environment changed, they adjusted their viewing behaviour accordingly. They learned whether the monster's location was stable or not and were able to actively adapt their learning strategy. It was surprising to see that babies learn in such a flexible way."

Daily life

In the study, Poli also asked parents to complete a questionnaire in which they had to indicate how their baby deals with new situations. How does a baby respond to a game of peek-a-boo, for example? And how quickly does a baby go to new toys? Poli: "We saw that babies who had difficulty adapting their learning strategy, or who adapted too much, also had difficulty with change in everyday life."

In adults, we know that there is a link between difficulty coping with change and anxiety or depression. It is possible that babies who do not adapt their learning strategies efficiently are more likely to develop symptoms of anxiety and depression later in life. 'But this is still speculation. To be able to say this with certainty, longitudinal research is needed,' says Poli.