What Do Babies Know? - IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation
The IELTS reading test has a total of 40 questions and is scheduled for an hour. The reading abilities of students are assessed in the IELTS Reading section via a passage followed by questions. The IELTS Reading part tests students' skills using a range of question types. The IELTS Academic passage ‘What Do Babies Know?’ is a reading passage that previously came in an IELTS Test. This passage deals with the kinds of questions given below:
- True/False/Not Given
- Choose the correct letter
- Choose the correct ending
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Section 1
Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions
What Do Babies Know? IELTS Reading Sample
- 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 mouth 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.
- 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 diameter 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.”
- 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.
Section 2
Solution and Explanation
Question 27-32
Do the following statements agree with the information given in reading passage?
inbox is 27-32 on your 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
- Babies' behavior after being abandoned is not surprising.
Answer: true
Supporting Sentence: he sucks his fingers for comfort, but finding no solace, his month crumples, his body stiffens and he lets rip and almighty shriek of distress. This is the usual expression when babies are left alone or abandoned.
Keywords: abandoned, babies
Keyword Location: paragraph one,3rd- 4th line
Explanation: it is being explained in the sentence that what all babies do when they are abandoned hence their behavior doesn't seem surprising at all.
Read More IELTS Reading Related Samples
- Parents are overestimating what babies know.
Answer: not given
- Only 100 experiments have been done but can prove the theories about what we know.
Answer: false
Supporting Sentence: 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.
Keywords: 100, challenging
Keyword Location: second paragraph, last line
Explanation: the above statement is false because it's been mentioned that 100 tests were done but now it's challenging for us to know what babies know.
- Piaget theory was rejected by parents in 1920s
Answer: not given
- Sylvain Sirois conclusion on infants’ cognition is similar to Piaget’s
Answer: true
Supporting Sentence: 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.”
Keywords: sylvain Sirois, Piaget
Keyword Location: 4th paragraph, last line
Explanation: It has been mentioned that Sylvain Sirois conclusion on infants is so much similar and directive towards the Piagetian approach towards the babies cognition.
- Found serious flaws in the experiment designed by Baillargeon and Elizabeth Spelke.
Answer: false
Supporting Sentence: The mistake of previous research, says Sirosis, 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.
Keywords: infants, concept of impossibility
Keyword Location: paragraph 6, 6th line
Explanation: From the above paragraph it is being stated that the flaw was present in the conclusion part only not in the whole experiment which was designed.
Question 33-37
Complete each statement with the correct ending A-E below.
Write the correct letter, A-E, in boxes 33-37 on your answer sheet.
- Jean Piaget thinks infants younger than 9 months won’t know something existing
Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: 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.
Keywords: Piaget, 9months, infants
Keyword Location: 4th paragraph, 2nd line
Explanation: Piaget talks about how infants younger than nine months are clueless about the world and believe that the things which are not under their vision are not present in the world, this knowledge is slowly developed with experience. hence the answer would be B.
- Jean Piaget thinks babies only get the knowledge
Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: instead, babies must gradually construct this knowledge from experience.
Keywords: experience, knowledge, babies
Keyword Location: paragraph 4, 3rd line
Explanation: it has been stated and talked about that infants usually build and develop their knowledge through the experiences which they engage in their lives.
- Some cognitive scientists think babies have the mechanism to learn a language
Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: 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 theorize that infants arrive already equipped with some knowledge of the physical world and even rudimentary programming for math and language.
Keywords: learn language, cognitive
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4, 4th line
Explanation: it has been talked about that before infants are born they are equipped with certain knowledge of language and the physical world around them. Therefore, A is the accurate answer.
- Sylvain Sirois thinks that babies can reflect a response to stimuli that are novel
Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: His own experiments indicate that a baby’s fascination with physically impossible events merely reflects a response to stimuli that are novel.
Keywords: physically impossible events
Keyword Location: paragraph six, 3rd line
Explanation: In paragraph six, it talks about the Sylvain Sirois which indicates the baby’s fascination with physically impossible events.
- Sylvain Sirois thinks babies’ attention level will drop
Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: 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.
Keywords: Danel, attention level
Keyword Location: Paragraph 6, 5th line
Explanation: in the above line it has been stated through an example that the attention level of a baby will not be persistent enough when they will engage in the same thing for a longer course of the period as they will get bored out of it.
Questions 38-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter in boxes 38-40 on your answer sheet.
- What can we know about Daniel in the third paragraph?
- Daniel’s attention level rose when he saw a blue train.
- Kid’s attention fell when he was accustomed to the changes.
- Child’s brain activity was monitored by special equipment.
- Size of the train changed when it came out of the tunnel.
Answer: B-Kid’s attention fell when he was accustomed to the changes.
Supporting Sentence: A hidden device above the screen is tracking Daniel’s eyes as they follow the train and measuring the diameter of his pupils 50 times a second. As the child gets bored—or “habituated”, as psychologists call the process— his attention level steadily drops.
Keywords: habituated, steadily drops
Keyword Location: Paragraph C, 2nd and 3rd line
Explanation: The paragraph communicates how Daniel's concentration period is steadily dropped when he gets habituated with the same process. Hence the answer is B.
- What can we know from the writer in the fourth paragraph?
- The theories about what a baby knows changed over time.
- Why the experiments that had been done before were rejected.
- Infants have the innate knowledge to know the external environment.
- Piaget’s “constructivist” theories were massively influential on parents.
Answer: A-The theories about what baby knows changed over time
Supporting Sentence: 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 theorize that infants arrive already equipped with some knowledge of the physical world and even rudimentary programming for math and language
Keywords: theories, 20 years
Keyword Location: Paragraph four, 4th line
Explanation: it could be interpreted about the writer that babies are born with determining abilities and the knowledge of the language and the experiments regarding what a baby knows and this keeps on changing now and then.
- What can we know from the argument of the experiment about the baby in the sixth paragraph?
- Infants are attracted by various colors of the trains all the time.
- Sylvain Sirois accuses misleading approaches of current experiments.
- Sylvain Sirois indicates that only impossible events make children interested.
- Sylvain Sirois suggests that novel things attract baby’s attention.
Answer: D-Sylvain Sirois suggests that novel things attract baby’s attention
Supporting Sentence: 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.
Keywords: novel things
Keyword Location: sixth paragraph
Explanation: through the paragraph, it can be inferred through the experiment that the things which the newborn is habituated to would be boring, on the other hand, doing noble things we'll grab infants attention.
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