Research
Babies take the biscuit
Bouncing babies can become junior scientists by taking part in a fun
experiment at the University.
Ten-month old babies are required by Dr Claudia Uller of the Department
of Psychology as she seeks to discover if babies can differentiate between
number and size.
In a quick series of experiments babies will be invited to choose
between a selection of cookies, some will be spaced out to clearly
indicate how many there are, while others will be close together to
resemble one big cookie.
Dr
Uller said: 'It has already been shown that at ten months babies have a
rudimentary idea of numbers, if you show them two jars of cookies, one
with three in and one with two in, most of the babies will head for the
jar with the most cookies.
'However when you get to four to six cookies they find it more
difficult to tell the difference, so we are devising an experiment to see
if they make their decisions based on mass or density.'
The babies need to be aged ten months between June and November and
each child taking part receives a child scientist certificate and a
special Graduate of the University of Essex Infant Cognitive Laboratory
tee-shirt.
This research follows on from Dr Uller's recent success in finding out
if horses can count.
With student Jennifer Lewis, Dr Uller presented their research into
numerical discrimination in horses at the British Psychological Society's
annual conference in Dublin.
In two tasks, modelled on those previously used with human infants and
non-human primates to examine basic counting abilities, the researchers
used apples placed in containers to measure whether the horses would make
a choice based on the number involved. Time, sound and smell cues were all
controlled for.
When given a choice the animals chose the containers with the most
apples significantly more often. This result suggests that horses too, and
not only primates, are able to spontaneously discriminate between two
small numbers.
The Infant Cognitive Laboratory is always looking for babies under 12
months for their research and anyone interested can find out more on their
website
www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/ICL or e-mail
iclab@essex.ac.uk.
Wheelchair exchange
Research into intelligent wheelchairs, which can vastly improve the
quality of life for disabled people and the elderly, has received a
financial boost.
Professor Huosheng Hu, of the Department of Computing and Electrical
Systems, has been awarded £22,000, by the Royal Academy of Engineering for
12-month research exchanges (July 2008 - June 2009) with Professor Kui
Yuan in Chinese Academy of Sciences at Beijing.
The two scientists have worked closely in the past to develop a new
generation of intelligent wheelchairs and this exchange should further
improve the wheelchair hardware and control software towards the goal of
making the wheelchairs a viable commercial option.
When Professor Yuan arrives at Essex in July for the first stage of the
exchange, work will start on enhancing the hands-free human-machine
interfaces for electric-powered wheelchairs, including the integration of
different control mechanisms such as using voice, brainwave, eyeball or
lip movements to move the wheelchair and autonomous navigation functions
that have been developed.
They will also be looking to reduce energy consumption on the
intelligent wheelchair to achieve a long-running time.
Professor Hu, who returns to China for six months with Professor Yuan
early next year said: ‘The next generation of hands-free controlled
wheelchairs will be robust and intelligent, and has user-friendly
man-machine interfaces and the ability of avoiding collision and planning
a path. It will be able to help the elderly and disabled people to gain
necessary mobility and independence, and have better quality of life in
the society.’
Also in the printed May edition of Wyvern:
- Fast flickering wind turbines could provoke seizures
- Child poverty risk
- Anxiety research needs volunteers
- Intranet search success
