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What Do Babies Know?

As Daniel Haworth is settled into a high chair and wheeled behind a black screen, a sudden look of worry furrows his 9-month-old brow. His dark blue eyes dart left and right in search of the familiar reassurance of his mother’s face. She calls his name and makes soothing noises, but Daniel senses something unusual is happening. He sucks his fingers for comfort, but, finding no solace, his month crumples, his body stiffens, and he lets rip an almighty shriek of distress. This is the usual expression when babies are left alone or abandoned. Mom picks him up, reassures him, and two minutes later, a chortling and alert Daniel returns to the darkened booth behind the screen and submits himself to baby lab, a unit set up in 2005 at the University of Manchester in northwest England to investigate how babies think.

Watching infants piece life together, seeing their senses, emotions and motor skills take shape, is a source of mystery and endless fascination—at least to parents and developmental psychologists. We can decode their signals of distress or read a million messages into their first smile. But how much do we really know about what’s going on behind those wide, innocent eyes? How much of their understanding of and response to the world comes preloaded at birth? How much is built from scratch by experience? Such are the questions being explored at baby lab. Though the facility is just 18 months old and has tested only 100 infants, it’s already challenging current thinking on what babies know and how they come to know it. >> IELTS TUTOR lưu ý: Phân tích&Bài Sửa HS đạt 7.0"The diagram below shows how to recycle organic waste to produce fertiliser (compost)" IELTS WRITING TASK 1

Daniel is now engrossed in watching video clips of a red toy train on a circular track. The train disappears into a tunnel and emerges on the other side. A hidden device above the screen is tracking Daniel’s eyes as they follow the train and measuring the diametre of his pupils 50 times a second. As the child gets bored—or “habituated”, as psychologists call the process— his attention level steadily drops. But it picks up a little whenever some novelty is introduced. The train might be green, or it might be blue. And sometimes an impossible thing happens— the train goes into the tunnel one color and comes out another.

Variations of experiments like this one, examining infant attention, have been a standard tool of developmental psychology ever since the Swiss pioneer of the field, Jean Piaget, started experimenting on his children in the 1920s. Piaget’s work led him to conclude that infants younger than 9 months have no innate knowledge of how the world works or any sense of “object permanence” (that people and things still exist even when they’re not seen). Instead, babies must gradually construct this knowledge from experience. Piaget’s “constructivist” theories were massively influential on postwar educators and psychologist, but over the past 20 years or so they have been largely set aside by a new generation of “nativist” psychologists and cognitive scientists whose more sophisticated experiments led them to theorise that infants arrive already equipped with some knowledge of the physical world and even rudimentary programming for math and language. Baby lab director Sylvain Sirois has been putting these smart-baby theories through a rigorous set of tests. His conclusions so far tend to be more Piagetian: “Babies,” he says, “know nothing.” >> IELTS TUTOR lưu ý: PHÂN TÍCH ĐỀ THI 30/5/2020"Some education systems make students focus on certain subjects at the age of 15, while others require students to study a wide range of subjects until they leave school. What are the benefits of each system? Which is better?"IELTS WRITING TASK 2 (kèm bài sửa HS đạt 6.5)

What Sirois and his postgraduate assistant Lain Jackson are challenging is the interpretation of a variety of classic experiments begun in the mid-1980s in which babies were shown physical events that appeared to violate such basic concepts as gravity, solidity and contiguity. In one such experiment, by University of Illinois psychologist Renee Baillargeon, a hinged wooden panel appeared to pass right through a box. Baillargeon and M.I.T’s Elizabeth Spelke found that babies as young as 3 1/2 months would reliably look longer at the impossible event than at the normal one. Their conclusion: babies have enough built-in knowledge to recognise that something is wrong.

Sirois does not take issue with the way these experiments were conducted. “The methods are correct and replicable,” he says, “it’s the interpretation that’s the problem.” In a critical review to be published in the forthcoming issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology, he and Jackson pour cold water over recent experiments that claim to have observed innate or precocious social cognition skills in infants. His own experiments indicate that a baby’s fascination with physically impossible events merely reflects a response to stimuli that are novel. Data from the eye tracker and the measurement of the pupils (which widen in response to arousal or interest) show that impossible events involving familiar objects are no more interesting than possible events involving novel objects. In other words, when Daniel had seen the red train come out of the tunnel green a few times, he gets as bored as when it stays the same color. The mistake of previous research, says Sirois, has been to leap to the conclusion that infants can understand the concept of impossibility from the mere fact that they are able to perceive some novelty in it. “The real explanation is boring,” he says.

So how do babies bridge the gap between knowing squat and drawing triangles—a task Daniel’s sister Lois, 2 1/2, is happily tackling as she waits for her brother? “Babies have to learn everything, but as Piaget was saying, they start with a few primitive reflexes that get things going,” said Sirois. For example, hardwired in the brain is an instinct that draws a baby’s eyes to a human face. From brain imaging studies we also know that the brain has some sort of visual buffer that continues to represent objects after they have been removed—a lingering perception rather than conceptual understanding. So when babies encounter novel or unexpected events, Sirois explains, “there’s a mismatch between the buffer and the information they’re getting at that moment. And what you do when you’ve got a mismatch is you try to clear the buffer. And that takes attention.” So learning, says Sirois, is essentially the laborious business of resolving mismatches. “The thing is, you can do a lot of it with this wet sticky thing called a brain. It’s a fantastic, statistical-learning machine”. Daniel, exams ended, picks up a plastic tiger and, chewing thoughtfully upon its heat, smiles as if to agree. >> IELTS TUTOR lưu ý: Phân tích & Sửa đề"Traffic and accommodation problems are increasing and the government should encourage some businesses to move from cities to rural areas. Does the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?" (ngày21/11/2020)

Questions 27-32
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
In boxes 27-32 on you answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true
FALSE if the statement is false
NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

27 Baby’s behavior after being abandoned is not surprising.
28 Parents are over-estimating what babies know.
29 Only 100 experiments have been done but can prove the theories about what we know.
30 Piaget’s theory was rejected by parents in 1920s.
31 Sylvain Sirois’s conclusion on infant’s cognition is similar to Piaget’s.
32 Sylvain Sirois found serious flaws in the experimental designs by Baillargeon and Elizabeth Spelke.

Questions 33-37
Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-E, below.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 33-37 on your answer sheet.

33 Jean Piaget thinks infants younger than 9 months won’t know something existing
34 Jean Piaget thinks babies only get the knowledge
35 Some cognitive scientists think babies have the mechanism to learn a language
36 Sylvain Sirois thinks that babies can reflect a response to stimuli that are novel
37 Sylvain Sirois thinks babies’ attention level will drop

A before they are born.
B before they learn from experience.
C when they had seen the same thing for a while.
D when facing the possible and impossible events.
E when the previous things appear again in the lives. >> IELTS TUTOR lưu ý: Phân tích +kèm sửa bài"The table below shows the number of visitors in the UK and their average spending from 2003 to 2008" IELTS WRITING TASK 1 (table)

Questions 38-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.

38 What can we know about Daniel in the third paragraph?

A Daniel’s attention level rose when he saw a blue train.
B Kid’s attention fell when he was accustomed to the changes.
C Child’s brain activity was monitored by a special equipment.
D Size of the train changed when it came out of the tunnel.

39 What can we know from the writer in the fourth paragraph?

A The theories about what baby knows changed over time.
B Why the experiments that had been done before were rejected.
C Infants have the innate knowledge to know the external environment.
D Piaget’s “constructivist” theories were massively influential on parents.

40 What can we know from the argument of the experiment about the baby in the sixth paragraph?

A Infants are attracted by various colours of the trains all the time.
B Sylvain Sirois accuses misleading approaches of current experiments.
C Sylvain Sirois indicates that only impossible events make children interested.
D Sylvain Sirois suggests that novel things attract baby’s attention.

Trẻ sơ sinh biết gì?

Khi Daniel Haworth được đặt vào ghế cao và đẩy vào phía sau một tấm màn đen (black screen, dark curtain, obscure partition, shadowed veil), một vẻ mặt lo lắng (worry, concern, anxiety, unease) bất ngờ hiện lên trên vầng trán của cậu bé 9 tháng tuổi. Đôi mắt xanh đậm của cậu đảo trái phải để tìm kiếm sự trấn an quen thuộc (familiar reassurance, customary comfort, well-known security, recognized relief) từ gương mặt của mẹ mình. Mẹ cậu gọi tên cậu và tạo ra những âm thanh dịu dàng (soothing noises, calming sounds, gentle murmurs, reassuring tones), nhưng Daniel cảm nhận được điều gì đó bất thường đang diễn ra. Cậu mút ngón tay (sucks his fingers, chews his fingers, nibbles his fingers, bites his fingers) để tìm kiếm sự an ủi (solace, comfort, relief, consolation), nhưng không tìm được, miệng cậu nhăn lại, cơ thể cậu căng cứng (stiffens, tightens, becomes rigid, hardens), và cậu bật lên một tiếng hét to (almighty shriek, loud scream, piercing cry, deafening yell) của sự đau khổ (distress, suffering, agony, torment). Đây là phản ứng thông thường khi trẻ bị bỏ rơi (abandoned, forsaken, deserted, neglected). Mẹ cậu bế cậu lên, trấn an (reassures, calms, comforts, soothes), và hai phút sau, Daniel vui vẻ và tỉnh táo quay trở lại gian phòng tối (darkened booth, shadowed chamber, dimmed cubicle, obscure enclosure) phía sau tấm màn và tham gia vào phòng thí nghiệm trẻ sơ sinh (baby lab, infant research unit, neonatal study center, child cognition laboratory), một đơn vị được thành lập vào năm 2005 tại Đại học Manchester, Tây Bắc nước Anh, để nghiên cứu cách trẻ sơ sinh tư duy (think, reason, perceive, comprehend).

Việc quan sát trẻ sơ sinh ghép các mảnh ghép của cuộc sống lại với nhau (piece life together, assemble life, integrate experiences, connect existence), chứng kiến các giác quan (senses, perceptions, sensations, awareness), cảm xúc (emotions, feelings, sentiments, moods) và kỹ năng vận động (motor skills, physical abilities, movement coordination, locomotor skills) của chúng hình thành, là một nguồn bí ẩn (mystery, enigma, puzzle, riddle) và sự cuốn hút vô tận (endless fascination, boundless captivation, infinite intrigue, perpetual attraction)—ít nhất là đối với các bậc cha mẹ và các nhà tâm lý học phát triển. Chúng ta có thể giải mã (decode, interpret, decipher, analyze) những tín hiệu khó chịu (distress, suffering, agony, torment) của trẻ hoặc đọc hàng triệu thông điệp từ nụ cười đầu tiên của chúng. Nhưng chúng ta thực sự biết bao nhiêu về những gì đang diễn ra đằng sau đôi mắt ngây thơ (innocent, pure, naive, untainted) và to tròn (wide, big, large, expansive) đó? Bao nhiêu phần trong sự hiểu biết và phản ứng của trẻ đối với thế giới đã được tích hợp sẵn từ khi sinh ra (preloaded at birth, inborn, innate, inherent)? Bao nhiêu phần được xây dựng từ con số không (scratch, zero, nothing, blank slate) thông qua kinh nghiệm? Đây chính là những câu hỏi đang được nghiên cứu tại phòng thí nghiệm trẻ sơ sinh (baby lab, infant research unit, neonatal study center, child cognition laboratory). Mặc dù cơ sở này chỉ mới hoạt động (facility, establishment, institution, research center) được 18 tháng và mới chỉ kiểm tra 100 trẻ sơ sinh, nhưng nó đã thách thức (challenging, questioning, disputing, contesting) những quan điểm hiện tại (current thinking, modern views, contemporary perspectives, prevailing beliefs) về những gì trẻ sơ sinh biết và cách chúng biết được điều đó.

Daniel giờ đây đang chăm chú (engrossed, absorbed, captivated, immersed) xem những đoạn video về một chiếc tàu hỏa đồ chơi màu đỏ (red toy train, crimson miniature locomotive, scarlet model train, ruby toy engine) chạy trên một đường ray tròn. Chiếc tàu biến mất vào một đường hầm (tunnel, passageway, underpass, subterranean corridor) và xuất hiện ở phía bên kia. Một thiết bị ẩn (hidden device, concealed apparatus, covert mechanism, secret instrument) phía trên màn hình đang theo dõi (tracking, monitoring, observing, keeping tabs on) ánh mắt của Daniel khi cậu dõi theo chiếc tàu và đo đường kính (diameter, breadth, width, span) của đồng tử (pupils, eye apertures, irises, ocular openings) của cậu 50 lần mỗi giây. Khi đứa trẻ trở nên chán (bored, uninterested, indifferent, fatigued)—hay còn gọi là bị thích nghi (habituated, accustomed, desensitized, acclimated), theo thuật ngữ của các nhà tâm lý học—mức độ tập trung (attention, focus, concentration, engagement) của cậu giảm dần. Nhưng nó sẽ tăng nhẹ bất cứ khi nào có một yếu tố mới lạ (novelty, innovation, uniqueness, originality) được đưa vào. Ví dụ, chiếc tàu có thể chuyển màu (change color, alter hue, shift shade, modify tint). Và đôi khi, một điều không thể (impossible, inconceivable, unimaginable, implausible) xảy ra—chiếc tàu đi vào đường hầm với một màu sắc và ra ngoài với một màu khác.

Đáp án:

27. TRUE

28. NOT GIVEN

29. FALSE

30. NOT GIVEN

31. TRUE

32. FALSE

33. B

34. E

35. A

36. D

37. C

38. B

39. A

40. D