Babies under the age of one can merge basic concepts to form intricate ideas, indicating that creativity emerges early in infancy.
Recent studies from the University of Birmingham in the UK and Central European University in Austria and Hungary reveal that infants exhibit creative thinking even before they start speaking, underscoring its significance in language development.
Published in PNAS, the research aimed to delve into the foundations of human creativity and innovative thinking to understand how individuals generate original thoughts and ideas by combining familiar concepts to create new structures, a process that is crucial for new language acquisition.
The study discovered that babies swiftly grasp new words describing small quantities, seamlessly integrating them with familiar words to comprehend a phrase comprehensively.
Primary investigator Dr. Barbara Pomiechowska conducted this research during her postdoctoral tenure at Central European University (CEU) and is currently an assistant professor at the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology.
Dr. Pomiechowska noted, “Human creativity knows no bounds, propelling us to achieve extraordinary feats like reaching the moon and combatting fatal illnesses. Despite its significance, the timing and emergence of this remarkable ability to innovate and combine ideas remain elusive. This study suggests that studying early language acquisition is imperative to unravel this enigma.”
For the study, researchers engaged 60 one-year-old babies and introduced them to two new words representing quantity: ‘mize’ for ‘one’ and ‘padu’ for ‘two’.
Subsequently, the babies were tasked with associating these number words with various object names, such as identifying ‘padu ducks’ from a selection of images. By teaching novel words for quantity, the researchers assessed the infants’ real-time ability to merge concepts rather than rely on recalling word combinations they already knew.
Using eye-tracking technology to observe the babies’ visual focus, researchers confirmed that the infants effectively melded the two concepts to comprehend the tasks presented to them.
Dr. Agnes Kovacs, from CEU’s Department of Cognitive Science and Cognitive Development Center, remarked, “This capability of combining distinct concepts is likely crucial for infants not only to interpret complex language input but also to learn about various facets of the physical and social environment. For adults, it is a skill that facilitates thinking beyond existing ideas, opening up infinite possibilities.”
