Babies learn best when they’re having fun
A new study in the journal Cognition and Emotion says that babies learn faster with laughter.
Researchers from Paris West University Nanterre La Défense rounded up 53 babies, all around 18 months old—the estimated age when babies already have a sense of humor.
In the study, researchers taught the babies to get a toy duck using a rake. The control group babies were taught by no-nonsense, straight-faced teachers.
Researchers in the test group, added humor to the mix by throwing the duck to the ground. Okay, that may not be funny to you (half the test group babies were also amused). But the situation creates “incongruity” or unexpected behavior which researchers say is “a key component of humor perception.”
Among the babies who laughed, 94% of them successfully learned getting the duck with the rake. This is a big difference since only 19% of the unamused test group babies learned the skill. Only 25% of the control group babies were able to do it as well.
The new study’s lead researcher, Rana Esseily, who studies emotion, developmental psychology, and cognitive psychology at Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, says more research is needed to fully understand the connection between laughter and learning. But, she says, “these results show, in my opinion, that humour (laughter) may promote learning and should be used in classrooms from early on.”
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