Space, time and quantity are related in the human mind. But how do these connections come to mind? It is on this question that researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) have looked into in order to discover whether representations of space and time were present in our minds from birth.
Bichat maternity hospital experience
To answer this question, an experimental protocol was set up in the maternity ward of Bichat hospital, allowing the visual attention of 96 newborns aged 2 days on average to be recorded. The experience placed them in a situation requiring their vision and hearing.
In a first phase, the newborns heard for one minute a sequence of sounds evoking a numerical quantity (6 or 18 syllables) and a duration (1,4 or 4, 2 seconds, while they saw on a screen a line slightly moving.
In a second phase, they were presented with new visual and auditory sequences, slightly modified from the first phase: a longer line with a higher amount of sound or a longer line and a reduced amount of sound.
Two days after birth they recognize space and time
“The results showed that newborns react when these quantities change in assorted ways (longer line and higher quantities of sound). They are therefore able to relate a numerical quantity and a duration, to a length in space. This experimental protocol made it possible to show that, only a few hours after their birth, human beings are already sensitive to the common structure of time, space and quantity “explain Dr Maria Dolores de Hevia and Dr Véronique Izard from Inserm’s Psychology of Perception Laboratory.
Scientists are now wondering whether other dimensions, such as light or sound, are also concerned.
