Researchers showed 24 babies aged six to nine months a video of a puppet show.
The 14 boys and ten girls sat on a parent's lap wearing a net on their heads with sensors attached to scan brain activity.
The babies were first shown two puppets, which were then obscured by a screen. A hand was shown removing one of the puppets. The screen was then removed to reveal one puppet, as would be expected, that is 2-1 = 1.
However, in some cases the babies were shown an 'incorrect' answer with the presence of two puppets (2-1=2).
Babies spent slightly longer looking at the puppets when they were shown the wrong answer - just over eight seconds with two puppets and just under seven seconds with one.
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