【英语时差8,16】意想不到的婴儿技能

 We marvel¹ as babies develop. Yael tells Don about some fascinating things researchers have discovered about infants.  Y: Today, on a Moment of Science, it's time for another round of Baby Skills, that fun and wacky guessing game that shows your baby is up to more than crying and napping. And today's question is: What can six-month-olds do better than nine- month-olds? Don, care to take a stab at it?

D: Hmmm! well! I really don't know, Yael. I thought nine-month-olds would be better at just about everything.

Y: Sorry, Don. It turns out that six-month-olds are better than nine-month-olds at recognizing certain faces. In a recent study, scientists observed that six-month-olds are equally good at distinguishing² between non-human faces, as they are at distinguishing between human faces.

D: By non-human, do you mean animal faces?

Y: Exactly. Six-month-olds apparently³ have no trouble telling apart animal faces, but then they lose that ability by the time they turn nine months old. In contrast, as they get older, they just get better at distinguishing between human faces.

D: Hmm! I guess that makes sense. After all, even babies know which side their bread is buttered on.

Y: That's right--it doesn't take babies long to learn that it's more important to pay attention to human faces than to animal faces. Scientists call this phenomenon cognitive⁴ narrowing. The more human faces babies look at, the better they get at noticing individual features. At the same time, as they grow older, and their knowledge becomes more specialized⁵, babies lose the ability to recognize animal faces, because they don't see nearly as many. And, as you might expect, when scientists tested this on monkeys, the opposite was true.

D: The monkey babies got better at recognizing monkey faces?

Y: Exactly.  

1 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

2 distinguishing   

a.有区别的

参考例句：

• Command of the mother tongue is the most distinguishing mark of the educated man or woman. 运用本国语言的能力是受过教育的人最明显的标志。
• A small child's confusion in distinguishing the right from the wrong is quite natural. 小孩子不明是非是很正常的。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

5 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。