Conversation is limited to ‘mummy’ and ‘bye bye’ and simply standing up unaided is a major achievement. But 11-month-old babies have already mastered the fundamentals of physics. Baby boys and girls were surprised when a ball seemed to disappear through a solid wall. Their curiosity did not end there. When they were then given the ball to play with, they repeatedly banged it on a table in an apparent attempt to work out its secret. Scroll down for video . Babies in the study reacted with surprise when objects like this toy car appeared to break the laws of gravity . The babies were similarly perplexed by a toy car that appeared to defy the laws of gravity and float in thin air. And given it to play with later, they repeatedly dropped it on the floor. Importantly, the babies shown the magic tricks were more interested in playing with the ball than a brand new toy that they had never seen before. Babies might be smarter than we had previously thought and can understand complex social situations from the age of just 13 months old. A study by psychologists at the University of Missouri has found that infants are able to comprehend what constitutes bullying, friendship and what it means to be a bystander. In an experiment with puppets they responded to different scenarios in a way that suggested they were more engaged than had been expected. The findings indicated the newborns had ‘strong feelings about how people should deal with a character who hits others’, the researchers said. And they did better than others on a learning test, in which they had to link a specific sound to the ball. This, say the US researchers, suggests that babies learn from the unexpected, something that is important in a world in which we are constantly bombarded with information. Professor Lisa Feigenson, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said: ‘For young learners, the world is an incredibly complex place filled with dynamic stimuli. ‘How do learners know what to focus on and what to learn more about and what to ignore? ‘Our research suggests that infants use what they already know about the world to form predictions. ‘When these predictions are shown to be wrong, infants use this as a special opportunity for learning. ‘When babies are surprised, they learn much better, as though they are taking the occasion to try to figure something out about their world.’ The professor studied 11-month-olds because they were old enough to sit and watch the ball and to pick it up and play with it. A ball was rolled down a slope and apparently passed through a solid wall in one magic trick in the study . Babies repeatedly droped the car after being shown the magic trick as they attempted to learn what happened . However, previous studies have shown that much younger babies and newborn animals have surprising amounts of knowledge about maths and physics, including whether an object should be able to pass through a solid wall. Writing in the journal Science, she said that some information may be so fundamental to survival that we are born with it. Lead author Aimee Stahl said that young babies are ‘remarkably sophisticated thinkers’. She added: ‘It’s easy to look at a baby and see a blank slate but actually babies have rich, sophisticated expectations about the world. ‘Infants are not only equipped with core knowledge about fundamental aspects of the world but, from early in their lives, they harness this knowledge to empower new learning.’ After seeing the ball trick babies would bang it on the table more as they attempted to uncover its secrets . The graphic above shows the reactions of the babies after seeing magic tricks that defied their expectations . The babies in the study were given choices about the toys they would play with after watching a magic trick . Children who can accurately depict the human form at the age of four are more likely to be brighter in their teenage years, according to a study published last summer. Psychologists at King’s College London studied pictures drawn by more than 15,000 four-year-olds who were identical ans non-identical twins. Those who drew with the most skill were likely to do better in intelligence tests a decade later. The children were asked at the age of four to draw a picture of a child. Each figure was scored between 0 and 12 depending on the presence of features such as a head, nose, ears, hair, body and arms. The children were given verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests at the time they completed the drawing, and again at the age of 14. The researchers found a definite correlation between the drawing scores and the two sets of intelligence scores. Dr Rosalind Arden, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, said: ‘Our results show that there is a link between the ability to draw at the age of four and intelligence later in life. ‘Through drawing, we are attempting to show someone else what’s in our mind. 'This capacity to reproduce figures is a uniquely human ability and a sign of cognitive ability, in a similar way to writing, which transformed the human species’ ability to store information and build a civilisation.’
Researchers at John Hopkins University in Baltimore showed babies magic tricks where balls seemed to pass through walls and toy cars floated on air.
11 month old infants were surprised when objects defied their expectations.
The babies then played more with the ball and car when given them later on.
Scientists say the children appeared to be trying to work out their secrets.