They baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert. Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze starts to lose its focus - until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns；she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?
他们的孩子刚出生一天，还没有出院。她很安静，但很警觉。研究人员在离她脸20厘米的地方放了一张白色卡片，上面有两个黑点。她仔细地盯着它看。一位研究人员取下卡片，换上另一张，这次的斑点间隔不同。当卡片从一张换到另一张时，她的目光开始失去焦点——直到出现第三张有三个黑点的 卡片。她的目光又回来了；她盯着它看的时间是上一张卡片的两倍。出生仅仅24小时的婴儿能分辨出数量2和3的区别吗？
Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects (a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.
或者是因为新生儿喜欢多而不是少？同样的实验，不过是先展示三个点，后展示两个点，当点的数量改变时，显示出相同的兴趣反馈。也许这只是一种新鲜感？当给稍大一点的婴儿看带有物体图片（梳子、钥匙、桔子等）的卡片时，改变物体数量的效果与改变物体本身不同。这可能是两件物品形成的图案和三件物品形成的图案不同？没有别的了。当屏幕上随机移动的方块从数量2变成3，或从3变成2时，婴儿会更专注。这种效果甚至会在感官之间产生交叉。反复观看两个点的婴儿在听到三声鼓点时比听到两声鼓点时更兴奋；当研究人员从鼓点开始，切换到点时，效果也一样。
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