Researchers used a technique called the “visual habituation paradigm” that measures how long one looks at a given object.

Since computer animations of a bus or a table jumping over a wall held the attention of infants for longer than a bus or table bumping into a wall, it indicated the former was newer to them than the latter.

In contrast, infants’ attention was held just as well by a cat jumping over a wall as by a cat rebounding after running into a wall, indicating that infants think that cats can both jump and rebound.

“Animals do bump into objects. The bigger picture is that the motion of objects is more predictable than the motion of animals. This research shows that even 10-month-old babies have some understanding of this,” Baker noted.

The study reveals that even the youngest among us absorb more details than some might think through eyes that are usually open wider than adult ones.

The findings were shared in the journal Infant Behavior & Development.

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