8-month-olds understand probabilities

Posted by Bayle Shanks at 6:00 PM EST

Maybe not news but i thought it was interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16gopnik.html

Eight-month-old babies were shown a box full of mixed-up Ping-Pong balls: mostly white but with some red ones mixed in. The babies were more surprised, and looked longer and more intently at the experimenter when four red balls and one white ball were taken out of the box — a possible, yet improbable outcome — than when four white balls and a red one were produced.

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